gasshō

Volume 1, Number 3 ISSN 1072-2971 March/April 1994

Editor-in-Chief: Barry Kapke	<dharma@netcom.com> or <Fidonet: 1:125/33.0>

Copy Editor: John Bullitt	<john.bullitt@metta.ci.net>

Production Staff: David Savage <david.savage@lchance.sat.tx.us>

Board of Advisors: Robert Aitken Roshi Amaro Bhikkhu Carl Bielefeldt

Bhikkhu Bodhi Thubten Chodron T. Matthew Ciolek

Roger Corless Rev. Karuna Dharma Christina Feldman

Gangcen Tulku Rinpoche Maha Ghosananda Joseph Goldstein

Joan Halifax Ayya Khema Anne C. Klein

Jack Kornfield Jacqueline Mandell Ken McLeod

Andrew Olendzki Charles S. Prebish Alan Senauke

Thanissaro Bhikkhu Christopher Titmuss others to be announced

Gasshō is a Buddhist newsletter, published by DharmaNet International,

P.O. Box 4951, Berkeley, CA 94704-4951, a not-for-profit organization.

Table of Contents:

{1} EDITORIAL: Message from the Editor

{2} NEWS BRIEFS: Nobel Peace Prize Nominees; Dalai Lama to Receive

Freedom Medal; Pali Tipitaka CD-ROM

{3} DHARMANET NEWS: How to Access DEFA; Internet <=> DharmaNet

Wormhole; INSIGHT Mailing List; DharmaBase

{4} NEW RESOURCES: BUDSIR; Dialing for Dharma; alt.* Newcomers;

DharmaDebateHall MOO

{5} CONFERENCE NEWS: Envisioning Tibet (Australia)

{6} LETTERS: Say NO!; Bring Out the Best; Gasshō Format

{7} DIALOGUE: The Second Precept: Generosity (Thich Nhat Hanh)

{8} ARTICLE: A Slice of Life in My Virtual Community (Howard Rheingold)

{9} ARTICLE: Computer Networks and the Emergence of Global Civil Society

(Howard H. Frederick)

{10} PRACTICE: Questions and Answers (Ajahn Chah)

{11} CALENDAR: March - May 1994

{12} REVIEWS: Buddhism After Patriarchy

{13} RESOURCES: ANU Social Sciences Information Services (T.M. Ciolek)

{14} SANGHA: FPMT Centers (World)

{15} ANNOUNCEMENTS

{16} A PARTING THOUGHT

{17} ABOUT Gasshō

[Ed.: Gasshō is currently being published in fwo formats, in two different mediums. The print version may be abridged, due to the constraints of space. The electronic version has no space limitations.]

{1} EDITORIAL

My apologies for the delayed release of this issue. I'm discovering what a big job producing and editing an electronic journal is.

This issue was originally intended to be focussed on "Women in Buddhism." Surprisingly (or, perhaps, tellingly) I discovered that very little material was being submitted. Consequently, I decided to postpone the "Women in Buddhism" issue until later in the year.

This issue, then, presents itself as a potpourri. Two of the feature articles, by Howard Rheingold and Howard Frederick, are not about Buddhism — yet I feel these are important musings upon issues that are very relevant to Buddhists, particularly as we are exploring and trying to develop our own virtual communities and our own engagement in an emerging global civil society. The WELL, the APC networks, and DharmaNet are three very different approaches to this electronic environment and it is productive, I think, to see these approaches side by side. This forms a fitting backdrop for Thich Nhat Hanh's discussion of the Second Precept, which traditionally is phrased in terms of vowing to abstain from taking what is not given, but which Nhat Hanh illuminates in the proactive light of "generosity." And the humor and impeccable heart-wisdom of the late Ajahn Chah brings us back continually to what is essential.

Enjoy!

{2} NEWS BRIEFS

Sulak Sivaraksa and Samdech Preah Maha Gosananda, two Asian Buddhist teachers and activists, have been nominated for the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize.

Sulak, who was nominated for the prize last year by Nobel Laureate Mairead Maquire last year as well, was nominated by the American Friends Service Committee for his commitment to peace and nonviolence in the fullest sense, and for building the institutions and structures which will create an environment in which peace and justice can flourish.

Samdech Preah Maha Gosananda was nominated by U.S. Senator Clairborne Pell, Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee for his dedication to peace and the war time protection of the culture and people of Cambodia. Ven. Gosananda has established numerous temples in the Cambodian diaspora and co-founded the Inter-religious Mission for Peace in Cambodia. He also has lead two walks for peace (Dhammayietra) and will be leading a third one to the Khmer Rouge headquarters at Pailin in May 1994. Ven. Gosananda received the prestigious Norwegian Rafto Foundation Prize for Human Rights in 1992, and he has also received an honorary doctorate of humanitarian service from Providence College.

We congratulate these exemplars of compassionate activity on receiving much deserved recognition for their work. May their efforts on behalf of all beings prosper. [Source: Alan Senauke]

* * * * *

The Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet and recipient of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize, has been named the recipient of the 1994 Franklin Delano Roosevelt Freedom Medal by the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute. The theme of this year's awards is "human rights and resistance to the tyrannical forces of oppression."

William J. Vanden Heuvel, president of the Roosevelt Institute, remarked: "He [the Dalai Lama] is such a universal symbol of human rights... All of us recognize the importance of our relationship to China, but we shouldn't lessen our commitment to him and to what he represents." The award will be presented at ceremonies in Middelburg, the Netherlands, on June 4. [Source: Nadine Brozan]

* * * * *

The American Academy of Religion has announced that two CD ROM will be distributed as part of the program of electronic publication. The first will be the Tipitaka portion of the Siam Edition of the Pali canon (vols 1-45) with full search software (BUDSIR IV). This CD ROM is the product of work done at Mahidol University and is the first complete set of a Buddhist canon to be made available. The preliminary price is $500.00 for institutions and $250.00 for individuals. It is expected that shipment of the CD ROM will occur in April. Orders can be sent to Scholar's Press in Atlanta Georgia.

A second CD ROM will be the Shinto Encyclopedia prepared by Mr. Handa in Nagoya, Japan. Containing some 600 technical words, this data base contains text, moving images and sound for most words. The preliminary price is $100.00. There will be discounts for those who order both CDs at once.

AAR invites individuals and groups to submit proposals for publications or distribution of electronic data bases. The electronic publication editor is Lewis Lancaster, University of California, Department of East Asian Languages, Berkeley, CA 94720. Email address is buddhst@garnet.berkeley.edu [Source: Lew Lancaster]

[See also: BUDDHIST SCRIPTURES INFORMATION RETRIEVAL, in Section 4]

{3} DHARMANET NEWS

ONLINE LIBRARIES: HOW TO ACCESS THEM

DharmaNet is working to bridge the technological borders between Internet and DharmaNet, so that denizens of the respective "virtual communities" may seamlessly visit and communicate with one another, and share joint resources. It is now possible to access DharmaNet's repository of Buddhist texts via various avenues:

* DIRECT DIAL-UP: Many DharmaNet BBS sites participate in a Dharma File Distribution Network that relays these files in a manner very similar to the way "echomail" is distributed. BODY DHARMA ONLINE in Berkeley, California, is the central hub for this manner of distribution; other participating sites are listed in the DharmaNet nodelist (updated weekly), with the notation "DFN" or "DFL." The DharmaNet nodelist is available at all DharmaNet BBS sites and from the Dharmanet-info directory at DEFA (see below). Participant sites agree to make these files available to callers at no cost (other than whatever phone costs are incurred by the caller).

* FILE REQUEST (F'REQ): Many BBS mailers allow files to be requested and retrieved without actually logging on to the BBS. This still involves making a direct dial connection to a BBS but it is faster and more efficient (hence, less expensive for non-local callers). All DharmaNet files are available via mailer file request from BODY DHARMA ONLINE or any DharmaNet site with a DFL notation in the nodelist; other sites may allow this option as well. A file request for the "magic name" FILES will usually retrieve a BBS' complete listing of files.

* FTPMAIL: Files may also be retrieved via ftpmail. To receive uuencoded files via e-mail, send an e-mail message to "ftpmail@metta.ci.net" with the message "Get filename.ext" in the body of the text (minus the quotes, of course). For example, "Get Allfiles.lst" would retrieve the listing of all files available through ACCESS TO INSIGHT BBS in Barre, Massachusetts. The file will be sent as uuencoded e-mail and will need to be unencoded with the utility, uudecode, or a similar utility. Additionally, most files will be compressed and so other utilities may be required as well; most files are compressed with PKZIP ver. 2.04g.

* ANONYMOUS FTP: The Dharma Electronic Files Archive (D.E.F.A.) has been created as an Internet repository for electronic Buddhist texts, images, and other materials. To access DEFA directly, at the Unix shell prompt, type "ftp ftp.netcom.com". When prompted for login, enter "anonymous." When prompted for password, enter your e-mail address (example: john.bullitt@metta.ci.net). [Note: if your site has ncftp available to you, it has several advantages over ftp.] Once logged in, change directory ("cd") to /pub/dharma. "ls" allows you to list the contents of the directory (subdirectories below /pub/dharma are capitalized; filenames are not). With ncftp, you can use the //page// command, to read a text file, such as "INDEX", which is a list describing the various files in a given directory. "get

filename.ext" will allow you to retrieve the file to your own home directory; "mget" allows you to retrieve multiple files. You can also use "put" to deposit, or upload, files to DEFA; these uploads should go into the subdirectory /pub/dharma/Inbound and please leave me an e-mail message (dharma@netcom.com) to let me know that you've left something.

MIRRORS: DEFA is also mirrored at other Internet sites, such as:

ftp.nectec.or.th	/pub/mirrors/dharma

etext.archive.umich.edu	/Religious.Texts/DharmaNet

* GOPHER: Gopher is an interactive menu-driven document server that allows you to view and retrieve text files (and retrieve binary files) from various sites. Currently, DEFA may be accessed via Internet Gopher at:

gopher.cic.net	To arrive at the DEFA areas, follow this path:

Electronic Serials => Other Journal Archives => E-Text Archive => Religious.Texts => DharmaNet.

coombs.anu.edu.au	To arrive at the DEFA areas, follow this path:

Coombsquest Networked Facilities => Buddhist Studies Facility => DharmaNet Archives

* WWW: The "World Wide Web" is an information service based upon hypermedia. The Web is accessed via either terminal-based "browsers", such as Lynx, perlWWW, etc., or GUI-based browsers, such as Mosaic, Cello, Viola, and others. Hypertext "documents" allow resources to be linked via intertextual "pointers" to other documents (or other media). For example, I could be reading about the life of Shakyamuni Buddha, and any number of highlighted "pointers" could be "tunnels" through which I could explore other aspects of the subject; clicking on "Bodhi tree" might transport me seamlessly to another document about Bodh-gaya complete with a high-resolution image of the Mahabodhi Temple, or even an MPEG movie clip, or to a discussion about enlightenment taking place in a DharmaNet newsgroup, and then hop back to the original text. In this way, resources in many media and at various locations throughout the world can be seamlessly interconnected. DharmaNet is very much interested in developing a hypermedia encyclopedia of Buddhism, called Dharmapedia, using these tools. In the meantime, resources that are currently accessible via ftp, gopher, WAIS, NNTP, or other methods, can be retrieved via WWW. Presently, DEFA can be accessed via WWW at:

http://www.nectec.or.th/nectec.html

http://coombs.anu.edu.au/WWWVL-SocSci.html

http://coombs.anu.edu.au/CoombsHome.html

ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/dharma/defa-home.html

It is hoped that people around the world will find these online libraries of value. We also encourage authors and publishers to contribute materials to these archives. Some people have raised the question as to whether promoting "free" access to information such as this is to detract from an author's livelihood or a publisher's ability to market such "products" or "intellectual property." Electronic libraries are in many ways similar to the public library systems and I am convinced that globalizing the availability of such information is one of the best advertisements for author or publisher that one could ask for (and at no cost), in addition to being a wonderful support and educational facility at the local community level. Moreover, for those of us who are Buddhists, it is an extraordinary opportunity to cultivate our field of merit and to keep alive the centuries-old tradition, and practice, of dāna.

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INTERNET <=> DHARMANET "WORMHOLE"

There has been considerable interest expressed in accessing DharmaNet via the Internet. We are currently looking into establishing a direct TC/IP link to the Internet that will allow seamless access between DharmaNet and Internet, enabling the full complement of Internet tools -- telnet, ftp, gopher, wais, www, irc, archie, etc. This will greatly contribute to the flow of information between users at academic and governmental sites, commercial providers, and DharmaNet BBS sites throughout the world. It will also allow the propagation of a DharmaNet newsgroup hierarchy, corresponding to and gatewayed with, the DharmaNet echomail conferences. It is largely a matter of funding that is delaying these developments. Anyone interested in contributing towards this project, please contact Barry Kapke (dharma@netcom.com).

In the meantime, John Bullitt has created a mailing list to allow Internet users to participate in discussions related to Buddhism or to DharmaNet or to ACCESS TO INSIGHT BBS.

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About the INSIGHT Mailing List

What It Is

~~~~~~~~

This mailing list was begun in January, 1994 to serve as a bridge between Internet users and the ACCESS TO INSIGHT BBS in Barre, Massachusetts, USA. You are welcome here, whether you call yourself "Buddhist" or not. It's an experiment, meant to serve two simultaneous purposes:

1. To keep Internet users up-to-date with events affecting the BBS in particular and DharmaNet in general. This will include announcements of new books available from DharmaNet via Internet, new Dharma-related Internet resources, and other stuff. If you find something interesting on the Internet that you think might interest other Dharma students, please feel free to post it here.

2. To give Internet users a chance to participate in informal discussions of Dharma. DharmaNet offers many "echoes," in which people may discuss Dharma-related themes, ranging from Ahimsa to Zen. For now, however, you can only join in those discussions by dialing a DharmaNet BBS. For many people this requires making a long-distance telephone call. This mailing list thus gives people a chance to discuss the Dharma with others without having to pay for that long-distance call.

The idea is simple: when you send a message to the mailing list, a copy of your message is "reflected" to everyone else on the mailing list.

The Rules

~~~~~~~~

1. Keep discussions friendly. View this mailing list as an opportunity to practice both ahimsā (harmlessness) and sati (mindfulness).

2. If you quote from other sources, please attribute your sources fully.

3. Please be aware that this mailing list is served by a small PC, with finite disk space. Therefore, please keep your messages of reasonable length. This is NOT the place to send large text files, copies of your favorite GIF file, or anything other than a simple plain ASCII message. If you want to share a large file with others, you can always send it directly to them via private e-mail.

To Subscribe

~~~~~~~~~~

Send a message to "insight-request@metta.ci.net". In the body of the message, put the word "SUBSCRIBE."

To Get Off the List

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Send a message to "insight-request@metta.ci.net". In the body of the message, put the word "UNSUBSCRIBE."

To Send a Message to the List

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Send it to "insight@metta.ci.net". Your message will be "reflected" to everyone else on the mailing list.

For More Information

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

About ACCESS TO INSIGHT BBS: Send a message to "info@metta.ci.net"

About DharmaNet: Send a message to "dharma@metta.ci.net"

In each case, an information file will be sent to you by our info-server.

How would YOU like to see this mailing list used? If you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to post them in the mailing list itself. Or, if you'd rather, you can send them to me privately.

Sabbe sattā bhavantu sukhitattā

May all beings be happy!

John Bullitt (moderator)

john.bullitt@metta.ci.net

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DHARMABASE -- A BUDDHIST DATABASE PROJECT

I am constantly being asked for referrals to Dharma teaching centers in metropolitan areas, or how to locate a particular teacher, or what organizations exist to support a certain concern, and so on. There is a wealth of Buddhist resources available to us but often times the difficulty is in finding them, or in knowing where to look. Some type of informational clearinghouse is needed and databases offer a versatile and flexible tool for meeting this need.

DharmaNet is building and maintaining a database project called DharmaBase that is presently serving the BBS and home computer communities. It is my hope that electronic data can be easily shared and coordinated between DharmaBase, the Australian National University WAIS servers, and other Buddhist data-gathering repositories.

DharmaBase utilizes a DOS DBaseIII-compatible program to compile data "magazines." The magazines are geographic (ie, California, SF Bay Area, United States, etc) and will soon be available for downloading from DharmaNet BBSs (as well as the Dharma Electronic Files Archive and its mirrors) in the same way that other binary files are. These can then be used by individuals for their own projects, importing the data into any DBase-compatible program. At participating DharmaNet BBSs, a DharmaBase "door" is online allowing users to update data themselves, so that it is hopefully a largely self-maintaining database. DharmaBase will also allow users to query the database by email (and eventually via WWW browsers).

The primary DharmaBase focus is Buddhist monasteries, Dharma centers, and organizations, but we are also compiling databases of journals; publishers; Buddhist BBSs; etc. CAVEAT: we are more or less in beginning stages with this project, so the actual compiled data as of this moment is small but the system is in place and the data is beginning to flow in. I think it will be an enormously valuable resource.

I have revised the DharmaBase record format to:

Name:

Address:

City:

State:

Zip:

Country:

Contact:

Voice#:

FAX#:

BBS#:

E-mail:

Lineage:

Affiliation:

Resident Director:

Spiritual Director:

Teachers:

Description:

Newsletter:

Updated:

Sources Used:

Record Compiled By:

Please submit listings of Dharma resources in your area, updates, or corrections, to DharmaBase, P.O. Box 4951, Berkeley CA 94704-4951; by e-mail to dharma@netcom.com; or by netmail to Barry Kapke at 1:125/33 (fidonet) or 96:96/475 (dharmanet). Please use the format above.

{4} NEW RESOURCES

[Source: Mahidol University gopher]

THE BUDDHIST SCRIPTURES INFORMATION RETRIEVAL

OVERVIEW

~~~~~~~~~

Many people said "This software would be another brave new world." It is the first of its kind in the universe of international Buddhism perusal.

Mahidol University Computing Center is very proud to present the world's FIRST complete DIGITAL EDITION of The Buddhist Scripture, Tipitaka, which is a collection of scriptures representing the collected teachings and sayings of Buddha and the scripture's commentary, the Atthakatha. The Tipitaka's importance is in being the root and basic reference for all teachings and explanations of Buddhism, the standard for measuring the teachings presented as Buddhism, a record of beliefs, religions, traditions and events of times many centuries past, an invaluable source of reference material relating to other fields of knowledge.

This digital edition has its name BUDSIR and the version to date is BUDSIR release 4.0. This latest version is suitable for international use. It is because the whole Pali passages' approximately 78 million characters in both manuscripts have been completely transliterated into "digitally Romanized form." This will no doubt be a provision of another channel through which Buddha's teachings are made accessible to the international community.

BUDSIR's internal structure is elaborately developed using mature and efficient information retrieval techniques usually used in large databases and specially designed with the ease of use for users of all levels of competence in mind.

OBJECTIVES

~~~~~~~~~~~

In the endeavor to pursue a particular subject in Tipitaka and Atthakatha that contain tremendous amounts of information, not only does one have to overcome the barrier of the Pali language, but also overwhelming amounts of information so widely scattered under a variety of headings within a volume. Hence it is extremely difficult to retrieve the information in question, accurately and exhaustively.

An attempt has been made to store the entire Tipitaka and Atthakatha in digital form so that any research that needs to gain access to this huge database will be greatly facilitated.

BUDSIR is unique in its accuracy, speed and exhaustivity. It can retrieve any word (including compounds), phrase or stretch of text that can be found in the Buddhist Scriptures. Moreover, this digital edition is also capable of searching both the Tipitaka and Atthakatha simultaneously, showing the results in two separate windows so that they can be studied and compared.

The BUDSIR's Beginning

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The difficulties in studying of Tipitaka and Atthakatha due to the vast size of the volumes cited above brought to the attention of the Council of Mahidol University in one of its meetings in 1987, it was felt that the University should undertake a project to develop a computerized version of the Tipitaka in honour on His Majesty the King's Ratchamangklaphisek Ceremony (The Celebration of the Longest Royal Enthronement Anniversary) and the Celebration of His Majesty the King's 60th birthday.

The decision of the Council of Mahidol University gave birth to the Royal Project for the use of computer technology in the study and research of the Tipitaka with Prof. Dr. Nath Phamornparvat, the Chancellor of the University Chairman, Venerable Phra Thepvedi as advisor and Mahidol University Computing Center headed by Dr. Supachai Tangwongsan as the task force.

The data contained in the BUDSIR database can be divided into 2 categories. Firstly, the Pali Tipitaka in Romanized form that was thoroughly transliterated and utterly verified from the 45 volumes of Tipitaka Thai script by a Pali expert. Secondly, the 55-volume Atthakatha, texts used in Thai-Pali examinations and two essential scriptures: Milindapanha and Bhikkhu Patimokkhapali.

BUDSIR IV -- Features Summary

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Several Efficient Search Methodologies

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BUDSIR features 2 efficient search methods. Users are able to launch a search using word/phrase keyword or using volume/page/item indicator.

Dual Windows Display

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BUDSIR independently displays Tipitaka and Atthakatha in separate windows. Users are able to freehandedly select which window to display which manuscript.

Working brilliantly in graphical environment

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BUDSIR completely runs in graphics mode display; definitely no need to modify the video graphic adapter to display the characters.

Pull-Down Menus and Mouse Support

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Any features can be accessed using hot-key, pull-down menus or a mouse.

Printing

~~~~~~~~

BUDSIR supports every de facto standard 9-pin and 24-pin dot-matrix printer and also Canon LBP-8II laser printer.

Requirements

~~~~~~~~~~~

BUDSIR essentially needs equipment with the following specification.

1. BUDSIR runs on the IBM PC, AT, PS/2 computers, and true

compatibles using Intel-based 80386, 80486 microprocessors.

2. At least 2 MB of RAMs

3. A super-VGA color graphic adapter and a matching monitor

4. A hard drive or optical disk with capacity not less than 250 MB

5. A keyboard and a Microsoft compatible mouse.

6. A floppy disk drive

7. MS-DOS version 4 or higher

What will be included in the next version ?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Several enhancements are planned to be included in the next version of BUDSIR.

1. BUDSIR database using CD-ROM technology with on-the-fly data

compression and encryption.

2. BUDSIR on WINDOWS 3.1 platform.

3. VOICE support for Pali pronunciation.

Questions and comments are very welcome and can be forwarded to:

Dr. Supachai Tangwongsan

Director of Mahidol University Computing Center

Mahidol University

Bangkok, Thailand

Email : ccstw@mucc.mahidol.ac.th

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[Source: Snow Lion Newsletter, Winter 1994, p.9]

DIALING FOR DHARMA IN THE COMPUTER AGE

The Bodhi-Line, a new telephone information service for the computer age, went on-line in October, providing the general public with a means to find out about New York area Buddhist centers. The taped message includes the centers' locations, schedules of classes and meditation sessions, and a list of books, tapes and other materials available. In addition, Bodhi-Line will refer callers to bookshops and mail-order publishers of Dharma material.

All that is required to use the service is a touch-tone phone.

"Our aim is to give a person every opportunity to find out about the wealth of Buddhist learning available in New York," says Michael Wick, founder and operator of Bodhi-Line. "We're using some of the most up-to-date technology available for information services."

He said that an additional feature of the Bodhi-Line is to provide information via fax. It will also be redirecting useful information such as notable articles being carried on electronic bulletin boards and e-mail services and other sources. People who don't have a fax machine can receive printouts by mail.

Bodhi-Line has permission from publishers, including Wisdom, Snow Lion, and Dharma Publishing, to reproduce parts of books, including covers, tables of contents and introductions. In addition, there are also taped lectures and computer clip art available. Actual excerpts of lectures can be heard on the Bodhi-Line by pressing the appropriate number.

All services offered by the Bodhi-Line are free of charge.

The Bodhi-Line number is (212) 677-9354.

For more information about Bodhi-Line, contact Michael Wick at Buddhist Information Service of New York, 331 E 5th Street, New York, NY 10003. Tel: (212) 777-3745. Fax & voice mail: (212) 677-9354.

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BUDDHIST NEWCOMERS IN THE ALT.* HIERARCHY

alt.zen

alt.philosophy.zen

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BUDDHIST DISCUSSION MUD

A MUD (Multi-User Domain) is an online Role Playing game that allows multiple players to interact in the same game in more-or-less "real time." Each player constructs an online character and uses English commands ("go right", "pick up book", etc) to interact with other players. MOOs are object-oriented MUDs.

Michael Moriarty reported in soc.religion.eastern that he had created his own virtual space with a Buddhist theme in LambdaMOO. He calls it "DharmaDebateHall": "This is a tranquil setting where all MOO is welcome to meditate or join in mindful conversation." DharmaDebateHall is not open at all times, but Mr. Moriarty says that he is often there during evenings, Central Standard time, and would welcome developing group discussions.

To access DharmaDebateHall, telnet to 'lambda.parc.xerox.com' at port 8888. On most systems, the command would be:

telnet lambda.parc.xerox.com 8888

For further information, e-mail: Moriarty@vm1.nodak.edu

{5} CONFERENCE NEWS

ENVISIONING TIBET: A Conference of Tibetanists

Held in Melbourne Australia, February 1994

Tibetan studies in Australia has come of age.

Australian scholars of Tibetan culture convened a conference in February, where they made the welcome discovery that there is more research underway than most people realized. Of the 40 scholars attending the two day "Envisioning Tibet" conference in Melbourne, 17 presented papers.

Topics of original research were broad, embracing history, philosophy, art, music, linguistics and contemporary issues. Karma Phuntsok, a Master's graduate from Jawarhalal Nehru University, presented a paper on the linguistics of evidentiality in Tibetan. The Tibetanist accompanying the two official Australian Parliamentary Human Rights delegations to China and Tibet, Kevin Garrett, presented a careful analysis of human rights in the Dharamsala magazine Shes-bya and the Beijing magazine Krung-go 'i bod-ljongs.

The impact of modernity on Tibetan communities was examined in several papers, including Elizabeth Stutchbury, whose anthropological field work in Karzha will soon be published; Keith Richmond's history of Bon in exile; Mark Stevenson's fieldwork among Amdo artists, Gabriel Lafitte on the Tibetanness of Sikkim, and a group presentation on the problems of Australian aid projects in Tibet.

Professor William Newell compared pastoralism amongst Western Tibetans and Gaddi shepherds in India. Span Henna depicted the Nakhi, close neighbors of the Tibetans.

Diana Cousens recovered the religious significance of Phagpa's conversion of Kubilai Khan, rescuing it from those western historians who seek only political explanations for religious events. Contemporary work songs were presented by Elaine Dobson, a composer sensitive to the wider sound environment in which the songs are sung, and their uses in sharing workload.

Ancient tog cha and their uses were vividly presented by David Templeman. The places of the Potala in western fantasy over two centuries was Peter Bishop's subject, while McComas Taylor offered a spirited reading of traditional popular Tibetan histories, as a way of appreciating the shrewdness, intelligence and humor so valued in Tibetan culture.

Major philosophical traditions which are as yet little known in the west were discussed by Deidre Collings in her paper on Mahamudra, Jon Mason on Buddhism and cognitive science, and Peter Fenner on adapting Madhyamika logic to practical programs for people suffering from conflicting beliefs. A few scholars were unable to attend.

The number of Australians doing useful research in Tibet, and the number able to read and write Tibetan is growing steadily. Tibetan studies is thriving in Australia, despite limited institutional support.

Further conferences are to be held every two years, and conference papers will be published in one volume.

The conference was collaborative, supportive and constructive, without the competitiveness which bedevils large academic conferences.

For further details of Tibetan studies in Australia, please contact Gabriel Lafitte, Box 1091, Collingwood, Victoria 3066, Australia. Phone (+613) 417-5953.

{6} LETTERS

[Source: CanTibNet Newsletter, 94/03/06 15:30 GMT]

SAY NO! TO CHINESE GOODS

For more than forty years, the formerly sovereign country of Tibet has been controlled and occupied by the Chinese communist government. Tibetans have been starved, imprisoned, tortured, and executed; more than 1.2 million Tibetans have died as a result of Chinese oppression. Six thousand Tibetan monasteries, nunneries, and centers of learning have been devastated, and 60 percent of Tibet's literature has been destroyed by the Chinese communists. Tibetans are being arrested and thrown into jail merely for displaying their flag. Now China's leaders have set out to eliminate the Tibetan national and cultural identity by a policy of population transfer designed to make Tibetans a minority in their own country.

As this policy of repression has continued, China has become a major exporter of goods to the U.S. Have you looked at the labels of items you purchased recently? Many billions of dollars worth of goods come from China, whose communist government denies fundamental human rights to both Tibetans and its own people. When you buy holiday decorations, look at where they are made — do you want such a repressive regime represented in your home? Do you want toys and other holiday presents for your children to bear the stigma of this regime? Do you want to wear clothing and use sporting goods that proclaim on their Made In China labels their identification with such source?

We believe that the time has come to NO! to Chinese goods, until the Chinese leaders grant freedom and independence to the Tibetans. Just as in South Africa, it will take economic pressure to get the message across to greedy political leaders that their policies of aggression and repression are unacceptable and must be changed. Just as Mandela and de Klerk have received the Nobel Peace Prize for their work in improving the South African situation, we want a leader of China to receive a Nobel prize for granting freedom to Tibet and the Tibetans. The Dalai Lama of Tibet already has received this prize for his work toward world peace; now it's time for the Chinese to have an enlightened leader.

To help the cause of Tibetan independence, we request that you send a copy of this letter to ten of your friends. The Chinese communist government has poured millions of dollars into a theme park in Florida designed to deceive the American people about its role in Tibet. We do not have the resources to launch a mass media campaign in support of the Tibetan cause. But just ten rounds of this letter will bring this message to millions of people in the U.S. and elsewhere. Please participate in keeping the chain unbroken — this act of compassion is sure to bring great merit to you.

T.I.B.E.T. Alliance, P.O. Box 3474 Santa Monica, CA 90408-3474

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Bringing Out the Best

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[...] this just happens to be one of those times when I'm filled with great gratitude for all you've done for the sake of bringing the Dharma to the electronic world. I'm constantly amazed by the level of respect and care that's been manifest in many of the e-mail messages I've been getting lately from new users, old users, Internet folks... The Dharma truly brings out the best in people, and it's a great joy to taste that joy when sitting at the dumb ol' video screen! So thank you!

John Bullitt <john.bullitt@metta.ci.net>

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Distribution Format of Gasshō

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Greetings from Finland!

I am wondering if Dharmanet could distribute Gasshō in postscript format, with magazine-like layout. I have understood you already now distribute Gasshō in printed form, so it might not be much more effort to print it just as plain PS-file.

The benefits would be clear. The magazine would more readable and more easily accepted. More people would read it and the temptation to throw it away after reading once would be less. With suitable cover-page and two-sided printing, people would immediately understand immediately what it is all about!

I understand that one cannot want too much from non-profit distribution. But page numbering, contents list, big title in cover page, magazine-like narrow columns, article titles and subtitles with clearly separable bigger fonts would make a tremendous difference.

Jarkko Lavinen <jlavi@cs.joensuu.fi>

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[Ed.: Thank you for the suggestions! There may well be a PS version of Gasshō in the future (I experimented with making a WordPerfect 5.1 version of Gasshō available with the last issue). I am constantly experimenting with and re-evaluating the format of Gasshō, and I am very much concerned with finding a readable and aesthetic balance that is suitable to this medium. And at the same time, I feel a commitment to working with *this* medium — Gasshō is an electronic journal, not a print journal that is distributed electronically. The hardcopy version that we distribute is produced as a courtesy to those who do not have access to these computer resources — YET — but our (that is, DharmaNet's) primary aim is the development of electronic resources to serve the Buddhist community.]

{7} DIALOGUE

THE SECOND PRECEPT: GENEROSITY

by Thich Nhat Hanh

Aware of the suffering caused by exploitation, social injustice, stealing, and oppression, I vow to cultivate loving kindness and learn ways to work for the well-being of people, animals, plants, and minerals. I vow to practice generosity by sharing my time, energy, and material resources with those who are in real need. I am determined not to steal and not to possess anything that should belong to others. I will respect the property of others, but I will prevent others from profiting from human suffering or the suffering of other species on Earth.

Exploitation, social injustice, and stealing come in many forms. Oppression is one form of stealing that causes much suffering both here and in the Third World. The moment we vow to cultivate loving kindness, loving kindness is born in us, and we make every effort to stop exploitation, social injustice, stealing, and oppression.

In the First Precept, we found the word "compassion." Here, we find the words "loving kindness." Compassion and loving kindness are the two aspects of love taught by the Buddha. Compassion, karunā in Sanskrit and Pali, is the intention and capacity to relieve the suffering of another person or living being. Loving kindness, maitrī in Sanskrit, mettā in Pali, is the intention and capacity to bring joy and happiness to another person or living being. It was predicted by Shakyamuni Buddha that the next Buddha will bear the name Maitreya, the Buddha of Love.

"Aware of the suffering caused by exploitation, social injustice, stealing, and oppression, I vow to cultivate loving kindness and learn ways to work for the well-being of people, animals, plants and minerals." Even with maitri as a source of energy in ourselves, we still need to learn to look deeply in order to find ways to express it. We do it as individuals, and we learn ways to do it as a nation. To promote the well-being of people, animals, plants, and minerals, we have to come together as a community and examine our situation, exercising our intelligence and our ability to look deeply so that we can discover appropriate ways to express our maitri in the midst of real problems.

Suppose you want to help those who are suffering under a dictatorship. In the past you may have tried sending in troops to overthrow their government, but you have learned that when doing that, you cause the deaths of many innocent people, and even then, you might not overthrow the dictator. If you practice looking more deeply, with loving kindness, to find a better way to help these people without causing suffering, you may realize that the best time to help is before the country falls into the hands of a dictator. If you offer the young people of that country the opportunity to learn your democratic ways of governing by giving them scholarships to come to your country, that would be a good investment for peace in the future. If you had done that thirty years ago, the other country might be democratic now, and you would not have to bomb them or send in troops to "liberate" them. This is just one example of how looking deeply and learning can help us find ways to do things that are more in line with loving kindness. If we wait until the situation gets bad, it may be too late. If we practice the precepts together with politicians, soldiers, businessmen, lawyers, legislators, artists, writers, and teachers, we can find the best ways to practice compassion, loving kindness, and understanding.

It requires time to practice generosity. We may want to help those who are hungry, but we are caught in the problems of our own daily lives. Sometimes, one pill or a little rice could save the life of a child, but we do not take the time to help, because we think we do not have the time. In Ho Chi Minh City, for example, there are street children who call themselves "the dust of life." They are homeless, and they wander the streets by day and sleep under trees at night. They scavenge in garbage heaps to find things like plastic bags they can sell for one or two cents per pound. The nuns and monks in Ho Chi Minh

City have opened their temples to these children, and if the children agree to stay four hours in the morning — learning to read and write and playing with the monks and nuns — they are offered a vegetarian lunch. Then they can go to the Buddha hall for a nap. (In Vietnam, we always take naps after lunch; it is so hot. When the Americans came, they brought their practice of working eight hours, from nine to five. Many of us tried, but we could not do it. We desperately need our naps after lunch.)

Then at two o'clock, there is more teaching and playing with the children, and the children who stay for the afternoon receive dinner. The temple does not have a place for them to sleep overnight. In our community in France, we have been supporting these nuns and monks. It costs only twenty cents for a child to have both lunch and dinner, and it will keep him from being out on the streets, where he might steal cigarettes, smoke, use delinquent language, and learn the worst behavior. By encouraging the children to go to the temple, we help prevent them from becoming delinquent and entering prison later on. It takes time to help these children, not much money. There are so many simple things like this we can do to help people, but because we cannot free ourselves from our situation and our lifestyle, we do nothing at all. We need to come together as a community, and, looking deeply, find ways to free ourselves so we can practice the Second Precept.

"I vow to practice generosity by sharing my time, energy, and material resources with those who are in real need." This sentence is clear. The feeling of generosity and the capacity for being generous are not enough. We also need to express our generosity. We may feel that we don't have the time to make people happy — we say, "Time is money," but time is more than money. Life is for more than using time to make money. Time is for being alive, for sharing joy and happiness with others. The wealthy are often the least able to make others happy. Only those with time can do so.

I know a man named Bac Siêu in Thua Thiên Province in Vietnam, who has been practicing generosity for fifty years; he is a living bodhisattva. With only a bicycle, he visits villages of thirteen provinces, bringing something for this family and something for that family. When I met him in 1965, I was a little too proud of our School of Youth for Social Service. We had begun to train three hundred workers, including monks and nuns, to go out to rural villages to help people rebuild homes and modernize local economies, health-care systems, and education. Eventually we had ten thousand workers

throughout the country. As I was telling Bac Siêu about our projects, I was looking at his bicycle and thinking that with a bicycle he could help only a few people. But when the communists took over and closed our School, Bac Siêu continued, because his way of working was formless. Our orphanages, dispensaries, schools, and resettlement centers were all shut down or taken by the government. Thousands of our workers had to stop their work and hide. But Bac Siêu had nothing to take. He was a truly a bodhisattva, working for the well-being of others. I feel more humble now concerning the ways of practicing generosity.

The war created many thousands of orphans. Instead of raising money to build orphanages, we sought people in the West to sponsor a child. We found families in the villages to each take care of one orphan, then we sent $6 every month to that family to feed the child and send him or her to school. Whenever possible, we tried to place the child in the family of an aunt, an uncle, or a grandparent. With just $6, the child was fed and sent to school, and the rest of the children in the family were also helped. Children benefit from growing up in a family. Being in an orphanage can be like being in the army — children do not grow up naturally. If we look for and learn ways to practice generosity, we will improve all the time.

"I am determined not to steal and not to possess anything that should belong to others. I will respect the property of others, but I will prevent others from profiting from human suffering or the suffering of other species on Earth." When you practice one precept deeply, you will discover that you are practicing all five. The First Precept is about taking life, which is a form of stealing — stealing the most precious thing someone has, his or her life. When we meditate on the Second Precept, we see that stealing, in the forms of exploitation, social injustice, and oppression, are acts of killing — killing slowly by exploitation, by maintaining social injustice, and by political and economic oppression. Therefore, the Second Precept has much to do with the precept of not killing. We see the "interbeing" nature of the first two precepts. This is true of all Five Precepts. Some people formally receive just one or two precepts. I didn't mind, because if you practice one or two precepts deeply, all Five Precepts will be observed.

The Second Precept is not to steal. Instead of stealing, exploiting, or oppressing, we practice generosity. In Buddhism, we say there are three kinds of gifts. The first is the gift of material resources. The second is to help people rely on themselves, to offer them the technology and know-how to stand on their own feet. Helping people with the Dharma so they can transform their fear, anger, and depression belongs to the second kind of gift. The third is the gift of non-fear. We are afraid of many things. We feel insecure, afraid of being alone, afraid of sickness and dying. To help people not be destroyed by their fears, we practice the third kind of gift-giving.

The Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara is someone who practices this extremely well. In the Heart Sutra, he teaches us the way to transform and transcend fear and ride on the waves of birth and death, smiling. He says that there is no production, no destruction, no being, no nonbeing, no increasing, and no decreasing. Hearing this helps us look deeply into the nature of reality to see that birth and death, being and nonbeing, coming and going, increasing and decreasing are all just ideas that we ascribe to reality, while reality transcends all concepts. When we realize the interbeing nature of all things — that even birth and death are just concepts — we transcend fear.

In 1991, I visited a friend in New York who was dying, Alfred Hassler. We had worked together in the peace movement for almost thirty years. Alfred looked as though he had been waiting for me to come before dying, and he died only a few hours after our visit. I went with my closest colleague, Sister Chân Không (True Emptiness).

Alfred was not awake when we arrived. His daughter Laura tried to wake him up, but she couldn't. So I asked Sister Chân Không to sing Alfred the Song of No Coming and No Going: "These eyes are not me, I am not caught by these eyes. This body is not me, I am not caught by this body. I am life without boundaries. I have never been born, I will never die." The idea is taken from the Samyutta Nikaya. She sang so beautifully, and I saw streams of tears running down the faces of Alfred's wife and children. They were tears of understanding, and they were very healing.

Suddenly, Alfred came back to himself. Sister Chân Không began to practice what she had learned from studying the sutra The Teaching Given to the Sick. She said, "Alfred, do you remember the times we worked together?" She evoked many happy memories we had shared together, and Alfred was able to remember each of them. Although he was obviously in pain, he smiled. This practice brought results right away. When a person is suffering from so much physical pain, we sometimes can alleviate his suffering by watering the seeds of happiness that are in him. A kind of balance is restored, and he will

feel less pain.

All the while, I was practicing massage on his feet, and I asked him whether he felt my hand on his body. When you are dying, areas of your body become numb, and you feel as if you have lost those parts of your body. Doing massage in mindfulness, gently, gives the dying person the feeling that he is alive and being cared for. He knows that love is there. Alfred nodded, and his eyes seemed to say, "Yes, I feel your hands. I know my foot is there."

Sister Chân Không asked, "Do you know we learned a lot from you when we lived and worked together? The work you began, many of us are continuing to do. Please don't worry about anything." She told him many things like that, and he seemed to suffer less. At one point, he opened his mouth and said, "Wonderful, wonderful." Then, he sank back to sleep.

Before we left, we encouraged the family to continue these practices. The next day I learned that Alfred passed away just five hours after our visit. This was a kind of gift that belongs to the third category. If you can help people feel safe, less afraid of life, people, and death, you are practicing the third kind of gift.

During my meditation, I had a wonderful image — the shape of a wave, its beginning and its end. When conditions are sufficient, we perceive the wave, and when conditions are no longer sufficient, we do not perceive the wave. Waves are only made of water. We cannot label the wave as existing or nonexisting. After what we call the death of the wave, nothing is gone, nothing is lost. The wave has been absorbed into other waves, and somehow, time will bring the wave back again. There is no increasing, decreasing, birth, or death. When we are dying, if we think that everyone else is alive and we are the only

person dying, our feeling of loneliness may be unbearable. But if we are able to visualize hundreds of thousands of people dying with us, our dying may become serene and even joyful. "I am dying in community. Millions of living beings are also dying in this very moment. I see myself together with millions of other living beings; we die in the Sangha. At the same time, millions of beings are coming to life. All of us are doing this together. I have been born, I am dying. We participate in the whole event as a Sangha." That is what I saw in my meditation. In the Heart Sutra, Avalokitesvara shares this kind of insight and helps us transcend fear, sorrow, and pain. The gift of non-fear brings about a transformation in us.

The Second Precept is a deep practice. We speak of time, energy, and material resources, but time is not only for energy and material resources. Time is for being with others — being with a dying person or with someone who is suffering. Being really present for even five minutes can be a very important gift. Time is not just to make money. It is to produce the gift of Dharma and the gift of non-fear.

* * * * *

THICH NHAT HANH is a Zen Buddhist monk, peace activist, scholar, and poet. He is the founder of the Van Hanh Buddhist University in Saigon, has taught at Columbia University and the Sorbonne, and now lives in southern France, where he gardens, works to help those in need, and travels internationally teaching "the art of mindful living." Martin Luther King, Jr., nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967, saying, "I do not personally know of anyone more worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize than this gentle monk from Vietnam."

This article was excerpted from For A Future To Be Possible: Commentaries on the Five Wonderful Precepts by Thich Nhat Hanh, and others, with the kind permission of Parallax Press, Berkeley, CA, 1993. The chapters on the remaining three precepts will appear in subsequent issues of Gasshō.

The preceding two issues of Gasshō included the first chapters of this series.

{8} ARTICLE

Copyright 1992, Howard Rheingold

A SLICE OF LIFE IN MY VIRTUAL COMMUNITY

by Howard Rheingold

I'm a writer, so I spend a lot of time alone in a room with my words and my thoughts. On occasion, I venture outside to interview people or to find information. After work, I reenter the human community, via my family, my neighborhood, my circle of acquaintances. But that regime left me feeling isolated and lonely during the working day, with few opportunities to expand my circle of friends. For the past seven years, however, I have participated in a wide-ranging, intellectually stimulating, professionally rewarding, sometimes painful, and often intensely emotional ongoing interchange with dozens of new friends, hundreds of colleagues, thousands of acquaintances. And I still spend many of my days in a room, physically isolated. My mind, however, is linked with a worldwide collection of like-minded (and not so like-minded) souls: My virtual community.

Virtual communities emerged from a surprising intersection of humanity and technology. When the ubiquity of the world telecommunications network is combined with the information-structuring and storing capabilities of computers, a new communication medium becomes possible. As we've learned from the history of the telephone, radio, television, people can adopt new communication media and redesign their way of life with surprising rapidity. Computers, modems, and communication networks furnish the technological infrastructure of computer-mediated communication (CMC); cyberspace is the conceptual space where words and human relationships, data and wealth and power are manifested by people using CMC technology; virtual communities are cultural aggregations that emerge when enough people bump into each other often enough in cyberspace.

A virtual community as they exist today is a group of people who may or may not meet one another face to face, and who exchange words and ideas through the mediation of computer bulletin boards and networks. In cyberspace, we chat and argue, engage in intellectual intercourse, perform acts of commerce, exchange knowledge, share emotional support, make plans, brainstorm, gossip, feud, fall in love, find friends and lose them, play games and metagames, flirt, create a little high art and a lot of idle talk. We do everything people do when people get together, but we do it with words on computer screens, leaving our bodies behind. Millions of us have already built communities where our identities commingle and interact electronically, independent of local time or location. The way a few of us live now might be the way a larger population will live, decades hence.

The pioneers are still out there exploring the frontier, the borders of the domain have yet to be determined, or even the shape of it, or the best way to find one's way in it. But people are using the technology of computer-mediated communications (CMC technology) to do things with each other that weren't possible before. Human behavior in cyberspace, as we can observe it and participate in it today, is going to be a crucially important factor. The ways in which people use CMC always will be rooted in human needs, not hardware or software.

If the use of virtual communities turns out to answer a deep and compelling need in people, and not just snag onto a human foible like pinball or pac-man, today's small online enclaves may grow into much larger networks over the next twenty years. The potential for social change is a side-effect of the trajectory of telecommunications and computer industries, as it can be forecast for the next ten years. This odd social revolution — communities of people who may never or rarely meet face to face — might piggyback on the technologies that the biggest telecommunication companies already are planning to

install over the next ten years.

It is possible that the hardware and software of a new global telecommunications infrastructure, orders of magnitude more powerful than today's state of the art, now moving from the laboratories to the market, will expand the reach of this spaceless place throughout the 1990s to a much wider population than today's hackers, technologists, scholars, students, and enthusiasts. The age of the online pioneers will end soon, and the cyberspace settlers will come en-masse. Telecommuters who might have thought they were just working from home and avoiding one day of gridlock on the freeway will find themselves drawn into a whole new society. Students and scientists are already there, artists have made significant inroads, librarians and educators have their own pioneers as well, and political activists of all

stripes have just begun to discover the power of plugging a computer into a telephone. When today's millions become tens and hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, what kind of place, and what kind of model for human behavior will they find?

Today's bedroom electronic bulletin boards, regional computer conferencing systems, global computer networks offer clues to what might happen when more powerful enabling technology comes along. The hardware for amplifying the computing and communication capacity of every home on the world-grid is in the pipeline, although the ultimate applications are not yet clear. We'll be able to transfer the Library of Congress from any point on the globe to any another point in seconds, upload and download full-motion digital video at will. But is that really what people are likely to do with all that bandwidth and computing power? Some of the answers have to come from the behavioral rather than the technological part of the system. How will people actually use the desktop supercomputers and multimedia telephones that the engineers tell us we'll have in the near future.

One possibility is that people are going to do what people always do with a new communication technology: use it in ways never intended or foreseen by its inventors, to turn old social codes inside out and make new kinds of communities possible. CMC will change us, and change our culture, the way telephones and televisions and cheap video cameras changed us — by altering the way we perceive and communicate. Virtual communities transformed my life profoundly, years ago, and continue to do so.

A Cybernaut's Eye View

The most important clues to the shape of the future at this point might not be found in looking more closely at the properties of silicon, but in paying attention to the ways people need to, fail to, and try to communicate with one another. Right now, some people are convinced that spending hours a day in front of a screen, typing on a keyboard, fulfills in some way our need for a community of peers. Whether we have discovered something wonderful or stumbled into something insidiously unwonderful, or both, the fact that people want to use CMC to meet other people and experiment with identity are valuable signposts to possible futures. Human behavior in cyberspace, as we can observe it today on the nets and in the BBSs, gives rise to important questions about the effects of communication technology on human values. What kinds of humans are we becoming in an increasingly computer-mediated world, and do we have any control over that transformation? How have our definitions of "human" and "community" been under pressure to change to fit the specifications of a technology-guided civilization?

Fortunately, questions about the nature of virtual communities are not purely theoretical, for there is a readily accessible example of the phenomenon at hand to study. Millions of people now inhabit the social spaces that have grown up on the world's computer networks, and this previously invisible global subculture has been growing at a monstrous rate recently (e.g., the Internet growing by 25% per month).

I've lived here myself for seven years; the WELL and the net have been a regular part of my routine, like gardening on Sunday, for one sixth of my life thus far. My wife and daughter long ago grew accustomed to the fact that I sit in front of my computer early in the morning and late at night, chuckling and cursing, sometimes crying, about something I am reading on the computer screen. The questions I raise here are not those of a scientist, or of a polemicist who has found an answer to something, but as a user — a nearly obsessive user — of CMC and a deep mucker-about in virtual communities. What kind of

people are my friends and I becoming? What does that portend for others?

If CMC has a potential, it is in the way people in so many parts of the net fiercely defend the use of the term "community" to describe the relationships we have built online. But fierceness of belief is not sufficient evidence that the belief is sound. Is the aura of community an illusion? The question has not been answered, and is worth asking. I've seen people hurt by interactions in virtual communities. Is telecommunication culture capable of becoming something more than what Scott Peck calls a "pseudo-community," where people lack the genuine personal commitments to one another that form the bedrock of genuine community? Or is our notion of "genuine" changing in an age where more people every day live their lives in increasingly artificial environments? New technologies tend to change old ways of doing things. Is the human need for community going to be the next technology commodity?

I can attest that I and thousands of other cybernauts know that what we are looking for, and finding in some surprising ways, is not just information, but instant access to ongoing relationships with a large number of other people. Individuals find friends and groups find shared identities online, through the aggregated networks of relationships and commitments that make any community possible. But are relationships and commitments as we know them even possible in a place where identities are fluid? The physical world, known variously as "IRL" ("In Real Life"), or "offline," is a place where the identity

and position of the people you communicate with are well known, fixed, and highly visual. In cyberspace, everybody is in the dark. We can only exchange words with each other -- no glances or shrugs or ironic smiles. Even the nuances of voice and intonation are stripped away. On top of the technology-imposed constraints, we who populate cyberspace deliberately experiment with fracturing traditional notions of identity by living as multiple simultaneous personae in different virtual neighborhoods.

We reduce and encode our identities as words on a screen, decode and unpack the identities of others. The way we use these words, the stories (true and false) we tell about ourselves (or about the identity we want people to believe us to be) is what determines our identities in cyberspace. The aggregation of personae, interacting with each other, determines the nature of the collective culture. Our personae, constructed from our stories of who we are, use the overt topics of discussion in a BBS or network for a more fundamental purpose, as means of interacting with each other. And all this takes place on both public and private levels, in many-to-many open discussions and one-to-one private electronic mail, front stage role-playing and backstage behavior.

When I'm online, I cruise through my conferences, reading and replying in topics that I've been following, starting my own topics when the inspiration or need strikes me. Every few minutes, I get a notice on my screen that I have incoming mail. I might decide to wait to read the mail until I'm finished doing something else, or drop from the conference into the mailer, to see who it is from. At the same time that I am participating in open discussion in conferences and private discourse in electronic mail, people I know well use "sends" — a means of sending one or two quick sentences to my screen without the intervention of an electronic mail message. This can be irritating before you get used to it, since you are either reading or writing something else when it happens, but eventually it becomes a kind of rhythm: different degrees of thoughtfulness and formality happen simultaneously, along with the simultaneous multiple personae. Then there are public and private conferences that have partially overlapping memberships. CMC offers tools for facilitating all the various ways people have discovered to divide and communicate, group and subgroup and regroup, include and exclude, select and elect.

When a group of people remain in communication with one another for extended periods of time, the question of whether it is a community arises. Virtual communities might be real communities, they might be pseudocommunities, or they might be something entirely new in the realm of social contracts, but I believe they are in part a response to the hunger for community that has followed the disintegration of traditional communities around the world.

Social norms and shared mental models have not emerged yet, so everyone's sense of what kind of place cyberspace is can vary widely, which makes it hard to tell whether the person you are communicating with shares the same model of the system within which you are communicating. Indeed, the online acronym YMMV ("Your Mileage May Vary") has become shorthand for this kind of indeterminacy of shared context. For example, I know people who use vicious online verbal combat as a way of blowing off steam from the pressures of their real life — "sport hassling" — and others who use it voyeuristically, as a text-based form of real-life soap-opera. To some people, it's a game. And I know people who feel as passionately committed to our virtual community and the people in it (or at least some of the people in it) as our nation, occupation, or neighborhood. Whether we like it or not, the communitarians and the venters, the builders and the vandals, the egalitarians and the passive-aggressives, are all in this place together. The diversity of the communicating population is one of the defining characteristics of the new medium, one of its chief attractions, the source of many of its most vexing problems.

Is the prospect of moving en-masse into cyberspace in the near future, when the world's communication network undergoes explosive expansion of bandwidth, a beneficial thing for entire populations to do? In which ways might the growth of virtual communities promote alienation? How might virtual communities facilitate conviviality? Which social structures will dissolve, which political forces will arise, and which will lose power? These are questions worth asking now, while there is still time to shape the future of the medium. In the sense that we are traveling blind into a technology-shaped future that might be very different from today's culture, direct reports from life in different corners of the world's online cultures today might furnish valuable signposts to the territory ahead.

Since the summer of 1985, I've spent an average of two hours a day, seven days a week, often when I travel, plugged into the WELL (Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link) via a computer and a telephone line, exchanging information and playing with attention, becoming entangled In Real Life, with a growing network of similarly wired-in strangers I met in cyberspace. I remember the first time I walked into a room full of people (IRL) whose faces were completely unknown to me, but who knew many intimate details of my history, and whose own stories I knew very well. I had contended with these people, shot the breeze around the electronic water cooler, shared alliances and formed bonds, fallen off my chair laughing with them, become livid with anger at these people, but I had not before seen their faces.

I found this digital watering hole for information-age hunters and gatherers the same way most people find such places — I was lonely, hungry for intellectual and emotional companionship, although I didn't know it. While many commuters dream of working at home, telecommuting, I happen to know what it's like to work that way. I never could stand to commute or even get out of my pajamas if I didn't want to, so I've always worked at home. It has its advantages and its disadvantages. Others like myself also have been drawn into the online world because they shared with me the occupational hazard of the self-employed, home-based symbolic analyst of the 1990s — isolation. The kind of people that Robert Reich, call "symbolic analysts" are natural matches for online communities: programmers, writers, freelance artists and designers, independent radio and television producers, editors, researchers, librarians. People who know what to do with symbols, abstractions, and representations, but who sometimes find themselves spending more time with keyboards and screens than human companions. I've learned that virtual communities are very much like other communities in some ways, deceptively so to those who assume that people who communicate via words on a screen are in some way aberrant in their communication skills and human needs. And I've learned that virtual communities are very much not like communities in some other ways, deceptively so to those who assume that people who communicate via words on a screen necessarily share the same level of commitment to each other in real life as more traditional communities. Communities can emerge from and exist within computer-linked groups, but that technical linkage of electronic personae is not sufficient to create a community.

Social Contracts, Reciprocity, and Gift Economies in Cyberspace

The network of communications that constitutes a virtual community can include the exchange of information as a kind of commodity, and the economic implications of this phenomenon are significant; the ultimate social potential of the network, however, lies not solely in its utility as an information market, but in the individual and group relationships that can happen over time. When such a group accumulates a sufficient number of friendships and rivalries, and witnesses the births, marriages, and deaths that bond any other kind of community, it takes on a definite and profound sense of place in people's minds. Virtual communities usually have a geographically local focus, and often have a connection to a much wider domain. The local focus of my virtual community, the WELL, is the San Francisco Bay Area; the wider locus consists of hundreds of thousands of other sites around the world, and millions of other communitarians, linked via exchanges of messages into a meta-community known as "the net."

The existence of computer-linked communities was predicted twenty years ago by J.C.R. Licklider and Robert Taylor, who as research directors for the Department of Defense, set in motion the research that resulted in the creation of the first such community, the ARPAnet: "What will on-line interactive communities be like?" Licklider and Taylor wrote, in 1968: "In most fields they will consist of geographically separated members, sometimes grouped in small clusters and sometimes working individually. They will be communities not of common location, but of common interest..."

My friends and I sometimes believe we are part of the future that Licklider dreamed about, and we often can attest to the truth of his prediction that "life will be happier for the on-line individual because the people with whom one interacts most strongly will be selected more by commonality of interests and goals than by accidents of proximity." I still believe that, but I also know that life also has turned out to be unhappy at times, intensely so in some circumstances, because of words on a screen. Events in cyberspace can have concrete effects in real life, of both the pleasant and less pleasant varieties. Participating in a virtual community has not solved all of life's problems for me, but it has served as an aid, a comfort and an inspiration at times; at other times, it has been like an endless, ugly, long-simmering family brawl.

I've changed my mind about a lot of aspects of the WELL over the years, but the "sense of place" is still as strong as ever. As Ray Oldenburg revealed in "The Great Good Place," there are three essential places in every person's life: the place they live, the place they work, and the place they gather for conviviality. Although the casual conversation that takes place in cafes, beauty shops, pubs, town squares is universally considered to be trivial, "idle talk," Oldenburg makes the case that such places are where communities can arise and hold together. When the automobile-centric, suburban, high-rise, fast food, shopping mall way of life eliminated many of these "third places," the social fabric of existing communities shredded. It might not be the same kind of place that Oldenburg had in mind, but so many of his descriptions of "third places" could also describe the WELL.

The feeling of logging into the WELL for just a minute or two, dozens of times a day is very similar to the feeling of peeking into the cafe, the pub, the common room, to see who's there, and whether you want to stay around for a chat. Indeed, in all the hundreds of thousands of computer systems around the world that use the UNIX operating system, as does the WELL, the most widely used command is the one that shows you who is online. Another widely used command is the one that shows you a particular user's biography.

I visit the WELL both for the sheer pleasure of communicating with my newfound friends, and for its value as a practical instrument for gathering information on subjects that are of momentary or enduring importance, from child care to neuroscience, technical questions on telecommunications to arguments on philosophical, political, or spiritual subjects. It's a bit like a neighborhood pub or coffee shop. It's a little like a salon, where I can participate in a hundred ongoing conversations with people who don't care what I look like or sound like, but who do care how I think and communicate. There are seminars and word fights in different corners. And it's all a little like a groupmind, where questions are answered, support is given, inspiration is provided, by people I may have never heard from before, and whom I may never meet face to face.

Because we cannot see one another, we are unable to form prejudices about others before we read what they have to say: Race, gender, age, national origin and physical appearance are not apparent unless a person wants to make such characteristics public. People who are thoughtful but who are not quick to formulate a reply often do better in CMC than face to face or over the telephone. People whose physical handicaps make it difficult to form new friendships find that virtual communities treat them as they always wanted to be treated — as thinkers and transmitters of ideas and feeling beings, not carnal

vessels with a certain appearance and way of walking and talking (or not walking and not talking). Don't mistake this filtration of appearances for dehumanization: Words on a screen are quite capable of moving one to laughter or tears, of evoking anger or compassion, of creating a community from a collection of strangers.

From my informal research into virtual communities around the world, I have found that enthusiastic members of virtual communities in Japan, England, and the US agree that "increasing the diversity of their circle of friends" was one of the most important advantages of computer conferencing. CMC is a way to meet people, whether or not you feel the need to affiliate with them on a community level, but the way you meet them has an interesting twist: In traditional kinds of communities, we are accustomed to meeting people, then getting to know them; in virtual communities, you can get to know people and then choose to meet them. In some cases, you can get to know people who you might never meet on the physical plane.

How does anybody find friends? In the traditional community, we search through our pool of neighbors and professional colleagues, of acquaintances and acquaintances of acquaintances, in order to find people who share our values and interests. We then exchange information about one another, disclose and discuss our mutual interests, and sometimes we become friends. In a virtual community we can go directly to the place where our favorite subjects are being discussed, then get acquainted with those who share our passions, or who use words in a way we find attractive. In this sense, the topic is the address: You can't simply pick up a phone and ask to be connected with someone who wants to talk about Islamic art or California wine, or someone with a three year old daughter or a 30 year old Hudson; you can, however, join a computer conference on any of those topics, then open a public or private correspondence with the previously-unknown people you find in that conference. You will find that your chances of making friends are magnified by orders of magnitude over the old methods of finding a peer group.

You can be fooled about people in cyberspace, behind the cloak of words. But that can be said about telephones or face to face communications, as well; computer-mediated communications provide new ways to fool people, and the most obvious identity-swindles will die out only when enough people learn to use the medium critically. Sara Kiesler noted that the word "phony" is an artifact of the early years of the telephone, when media-naive people were conned by slick talkers in ways that wouldn't deceive an eight-year old with a cellular phone today.

There is both an intellectual and an emotional component to CMC. Since so many members of virtual communities are the kind of knowledge-based professionals whose professional standing can be enhanced by what they know, virtual communities can be practical, cold-blooded instruments. Virtual communities can help their members cope with information overload. The problem with the information age, especially for students and knowledge workers who spend their time immersed in the info-flow, is that there is too much information available and no effective filters for sifting the key data that are useful and interesting to us as individuals. Programmers are trying to design better and better "software agents" that can seek and sift, filter and find, and save us from the awful feeling one gets when it turns out that the specific knowledge one needs is buried in 15,000 pages of related information.

The first software agents are now becoming available (e.g., WAIS, Rosebud), but we already have far more sophisticated, if informal, social contracts among groups of people that allow us to act as software agents for one another. If, in my wanderings through information space, I come across items that don't interest me but which I know one of my worldwide loose-knit affinity group of online friends would appreciate, I send the appropriate friend a pointer, or simply forward the entire text (one of the new powers of CMC is the ability to publish and converse with the same medium). In some cases, I can put the information in exactly the right place for 10,000 people I don't know, but who are intensely interested in that specific topic, to find it when they need it. And sometimes, 10,000 people I don't know do the same thing for me.

This unwritten, unspoken social contract, a blend of strong-tie and weak-tie relationships among people who have a mixture of motives, requires one to give something, and enables one to receive something. I have to keep my friends in mind and send them pointers instead of throwing my informational discards into the virtual scrap-heap. It doesn't take a great deal of energy to do that, since I have to sift that information anyway in order to find the knowledge I seek for my own purposes; it takes two keystrokes to delete the information, three keystrokes to forward it to someone else. And with scores of other people who have an eye out for my interests while they explore sectors of the information space that I normally wouldn't frequent, I find that the help I receive far outweighs the energy I expend helping others: A marriage of altruism and self-interest.

The first time I learned about that particular cyberspace power was early in the history of the WELL, when I was invited to join a panel of experts who advise the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment (OTA). The subject of the assessment was "Communication Systems for an Information Age." I'm not an expert in telecommunication technology or policy, but I do know where to find a group of such experts, and how to get them to tell me what they know. Before I went to Washington for my first panel meeting, I opened a conference in the WELL and invited assorted information-freaks, technophiles, and communication experts to help me come up with something to say. An amazing collection of minds flocked to that topic, and some of them created whole new communities when they collided.

By the time I sat down with the captains of industry, government advisers, and academic experts at the panel table, I had over 200 pages of expert advice from my own panel. I wouldn't have been able to integrate that much knowledge of my subject in an entire academic or industrial career, and it only took me (and my virtual community) a few minutes a day for six weeks. I have found the WELL to be an outright magical resource, professionally. An editor or producer or client can call and ask me if I know much about the Constitution, or fiber optics, or intellectual property. "Let me get back to you in twenty minutes," I say, reaching for the modem. In terms of the way I learned to use the WELL to get the right piece of information at the right time, I'd say that the hours I've spent putting information into the WELL turned out to be the most lucrative professional investments I've ever made.

The same strategy of nurturing and making use of loose information-sharing affiliations across the net can be applied to an infinite domain of problem areas, from literary criticism to software evaluation. It's a neat way for a sufficiently large, sufficiently diverse group of people to multiply their individual degree of expertise, and I think it could be done even if the people aren't involved in a community other than their company or their research specialty. I think it works better when the community's conceptual model of itself is more like barn-raising than horse-trading, though. Reciprocity is a key element of any market-based culture, but the arrangement I'm describing feels to me more like a kind of gift economy where people do things for one another out of a spirit of building something between them, rather than a spreadsheet-calculated quid pro quo. When that spirit exists, everybody gets a little extra something, a little sparkle, from their more practical transactions; different kinds of things become possible when this mindset pervades. Conversely, people who have valuable things to add to the mix tend to keep their heads down and their ideas to themselves when a mercenary or hostile zeitgeist dominates an online community.

I think one key difference between straightforward workaday reciprocity is that in the virtual community I know best, one valuable currency is knowledge, elegantly presented. Wit and use of language are rewarded in this medium, which is biased toward those who learn how to manipulate attention and emotion with the written word. Sometimes, you give one person more information than you would give another person in response to the same query, simply because you recognize one of them to be more generous or funny or to-the-point or agreeable to your political convictions than the other one.

If you give useful information freely, without demanding tightly-coupled reciprocity, your requests for information are met more swiftly, in greater detail, than they would have been otherwise. The person you help might never be in a position to help you, but someone else might be. That's why it is hard to distinguish idle talk from serious context-setting. In a virtual community, idle talk is context-setting. Idle talk is where people learn what kind of person you are, why you should be trusted or mistrusted, what interests you. An agora is more than the site of transactions; it is also a place where people meet and size up one another.

A market depends on the quality of knowledge held by the participants, the buyers and sellers, about price and availability and a thousand other things that influence business; a market that has a forum for informal and back-channel communications is a better-informed market. The London Stock Exchange grew out of the informal transactions in a coffee-house; when it became the London International Stock Exchange a few years ago, and abolished the trading-room floor, the enterprise lost something vital in the transition from an old room where all the old boys met and cut their deals to the screens of thousands of workstations scattered around the world.

The context of the informal community of knowledge sharers grew to include years of both professional and personal relationships. It is not news that the right network of people can serve as an inquiry research system: You throw out the question, and somebody on the net knows the answer. You can make a game out of it, where you gain symbolic prestige among your virtual peers by knowing the answer. And you can make a game out of it among a group of people who have dropped out of their orthodox professional lives, where some of them sell these information services for exorbitant rates, in order to participate voluntarily in the virtual community game.

When the WELL was young and growing more slowly than it is now, such knowledge-potlatching had a kind of naively enthusiastic energy. When you extend the conversation — several dozen different characters, well-known to one another from four or five years of virtual hanging-out, several hours a day — it gets richer, but not necessarily "happier."

Virtual communities have several drawbacks in comparison to face-to-face communication, disadvantages that must be kept in mind if you are to make use of the power of these computer-mediated discussion groups. The filtration factor that prevents one from knowing the race or age of another participant also prevents people from communicating the facial expressions, body language, and tone of voice that constitute the inaudible but vital component of most face to face communications. Irony, sarcasm, compassion, and other subtle but all-important nuances that aren't conveyed in words alone are lost when all you can see of a person are words on a screen.

It's amazing how the ambiguity of words in the absence of body language inevitably leads to online misunderstandings. And since the physical absence of other people also seems to loosen some of the social bonds that prevent people from insulting one another in person, misunderstandings can grow into truly nasty stuff before anybody has a chance to untangle the original miscommunication. Heated diatribes and interpersonal incivility that wouldn't crop up often in face to face or even telephone discourse seem to appear with relative frequency in computer conferences. The only presently available antidote to this flaw of CMC as a human communication medium is widespread knowledge of this flaw — aka "netiquette."

Online civility and how to deal with breaches of it is a topic unto itself, and has been much-argued on the WELL. Degrees of outright incivility constitute entire universes such as alt.flame, the Usenet newsgroup where people go specifically to spend their days hurling vile imprecations at one another. I am beginning to suspect that the most powerful and effective defense an online community has in the face of those who are bent on disruption might be norms and agreements about withdrawing attention from those who can't abide by even loose rules of verbal behavior. "If you continue doing that," I remember someone saying to a particularly persistent would-be disrupter, "we will stop paying attention to you." This is technically easy to do on Usenet, where putting the name of a person or topic header in a "kill file" (aka "bozo filter") means you will never see future contributions from that person or about that topic. You can simply choose to not see any postings from Rich Rosen, or that feature the word "abortion" in the title. A society in which people can remove one another, or even entire topics of discussion, from visibility. The WELL does not have a bozo filter, although the need for one is a topic of frequent discussion.

Who Is The WELL?

One way to know what the WELL is like is to know something about the kind of people who use it. It has roots in the San Francisco Bay Area, and in two separate cultural revolutions that took place there in past decades. The Whole Earth Catalog originally emerged from the counterculture as Stewart Brand's way of providing access to tools and ideas to all the communes who were exploring alternate ways of life in the forests of Mendocino or the high deserts outside Santa Fe. The Whole Earth Catalogs and the magazines they spawned, Co-Evolution Quarterly and Whole Earth Review, have outlived the counterculture itself, since they are still alive and raising hell after nearly 25 years. For many years, the people who have been exploring alternatives and are open to ideas that you don't find in the mass media have found themselves in cities instead of rural communes, where their need for new tools and ideas didn't go away.

The Whole Earth Catalog crew received a large advance in the mid-1980s to produce an updated version, a project involving many geographically-separated authors and editors, many of whom were using computers. They bought a minicomputer and the license to Picospan, a computer conferencing program, leased an office next to the magazine's office, leased incoming telephone lines, set up modems, and the WELL was born in 1985. The idea from the beginning was that the founders weren't sure what the WELL would become, but they would provide tools for people to build it into something useful. It was consciously a cultural experiment, and the business was designed to succeed or fail on the basis of the results of the experiment. The person Stewart Brand chose to be the WELL's first director — technician, manager, innkeeper, and bouncer — was Matthew McClure, not-coincidentally a computer-savvy veteran of The Farm, one of the most successful of the communes that started in the sixties. Brand and McClure started a low-rules, high-tone discussion, where savvy networkers, futurists, misfits who had learned how to make our outsiderness work for us, could take the technology of CMC to its cultural limits.

The Whole Earth network — the granola-eating utopians, the solar-power enthusiasts, serious ecologists and the space-station crowd, immortalists, Biospherians, environmentalists, social activists — was part of the core population from the beginning. But there were a couple of other key elements. One was the subculture that happened ten years after the counterculture era — the personal computer revolution. Personal computers and the PC industry were created by young iconoclasts who wanted to have whizzy tools and change the world. Whole Earth had honored them, including the outlaws among them, with the early Hacker's Conferences. The young computer wizards, and the grizzled old hands who were still messing with mainframes, showed up early at the WELL because the guts of the system itself -- the UNIX operating system and "C" language programming code — were available for tinkering by responsible craftsmen.

A third cultural element that made up the initial mix of the WELL, which has drifted from its counterculture origins in many ways, were the deadheads. Books and theses have been written about the subculture that have grown up around the band, the Grateful Dead. The deadheads have a strong feeling of community, but they can only manifest it en masse when the band has concerts. They were a community looking for a place to happen when several technology-savvy deadheads started a "Grateful Dead Conference" on the WELL. GD was so phenomenally successful that for the first several years, deadheads were by far the single largest source of income for the enterprise.

Along with the other elements came the first marathon swimmers in the new currents of the information streams, the futurists and writers and journalists. The New York Times, Business Week, the San Francisco Chronicle, Time, Rolling Stone, Byte, the Wall Street Journal all have journalists that I know personally who drop into the WELL as a listening post. People in Silicon Valley lurk to hear loose talk among the pros. Journalists tend to attract other journalists, and the purpose of journalists is to attract everybody else: most people have to use an old medium to hear news about the arrival of a new medium.

Things changed, both rapidly and slowly, in the WELL. There were about 600 members of the WELL when I joined, in the summer of 1985. It seemed that then, as now, the usual ten percent of the members did 80% of the talking. Now there are about 6000 people, with a net gain of about a hundred a month. There do seem to be more women than other parts of cyberspace. Most of the people I meet seem to be white or Asian; African-Americans aren't missing, but they aren't conspicuous or even visible. If you can fake it, gender and age are invisible, too. I'd guess the WELL consists of about 80% men, 20% women. I don't know whether formal demographics would be the kind of thing that most WELL users would want to contribute to. It's certainly something we'd discuss, argue, debate, joke about.

One important social rule was built into Picospan, the software that the WELL lives inside: Nobody is anonymous. Everybody is required to attach their real "userid" to their postings. It is possible to use pseudonyms to create alternate identities, or to carry metamessages, but the pseudonyms are always linked in every posting to the real userid. So individual personae — whether or not they correspond closely to the real person who owns the account — are responsible for the words they post. In fact, the first several years, the screen that you saw when you reached the WELL said "You own your own words." Stewart Brand, the WELL's co-founder likes epigrams: "Whole Earth," "Information wants to be free." "You own your own words." Like the best epigrams, "You own your own words" is open to multiple interpretations. The matter of responsibility and ownership of words is one of the topics WELLbeings argue about endlessly, so much that the phrase has been abbreviated to "YOYOW," As in, "Oh no, another YOYOW debate."

Who are the WELL members, and what do they talk about? I can tell you about the individuals I have come to know over six years, but the WELL has long since been something larger than the sum of everybody's friends. The characteristics of the pool of people who tune into this electronic listening post, whether or not they every post a word in public, is a strong determinant of the flavor of the "place." There's a cross-sectional feeling of "who are we?" that transcends the intersecting and non-intersecting rings of friends and acquaintances each individual develops.

My Neighborhood On The WELL

Every CMC system gives users tools for creating their own sense of place, by customizing the way they navigate through the database of conferences, topics, and responses. A conference or newsgroup is like a place you go. If you go to several different places in a fixed order, it seems to reinforce the feeling of place by creating a customized neighborhood that is also shared by others. You see some of the same users in different parts of the same neighborhood. Some faces, you see only in one context — the parents conference, the Grateful Dead tours conference, the politics or sex conference.

My home neighborhood on the WELL is reflected in my ".cflist," the file that records my preferences about the order of conferences I visit. It is always possible to go to any conference with a command, but with a .cflist you structure your online time by going from conference to specified conference at regular intervals, reading and perhaps responding in several ongoing threads in several different places. That's the part of the art of discourse where I have found that the computer adds value to the intellectual activity of discussing formally distinct subjects asynchronously, from different parts of the world, over extending periods, by enabling groups to structure conversations by topic, over time.

My .cflist starts, for sentimental reasons, with the Mind conference, the first one I hosted on the WELL, since 1985. I've changed my list hundreds of times over the years, to add or delete conferences from my regular neighborhood, but I've always kept Mind in the lede. The entry banner screen for the Mind conference used to display to each user the exact phase of the moon in numbers and ASCII graphics every time they logged in to the conference. But the volunteer programmer who had created the "phoon" program had decided to withdraw it, years later, in a dispute with WELL management. There is often a technological fix to a social problem within this particular universe. Because the WELL seems to be an intersection of many different cultures, there have been many experiments with software tools to ameliorate problems that seemed to crop up between people, whether because of the nature of the medium or the nature of the people. A frighteningly expensive pool of talent was donated by volunteer programmers to create tools and even weapons for WELL users to deal with each other. People keep giving things to the WELL, and taking them away. Offline readers and online tools by volunteer programmers gave others increased power to communicate.

The News conference is what's next. This is the commons, the place where the most people visit the most often, where the most outrageous off-topic proliferation is least pernicious, where the important announcements about the system or social events or major disputes or new conferences are announced. When an earthquake or fire happens, News is where you want to go. Immediately after the 1989 earthquake and during the Oakland fire of 1991, the WELL was a place to check the damage to the local geographic community, lend help to those who need it, and get first-hand reports. During Tienamen square, the Gulf War, the Soviet Coup, the WELL was a media-funnel, with snippets of email from Tel-Aviv and entire newsgroups fed by fax machines in China, erupting in News conference topics that grew into fast-moving conferences of their own. During any major crisis in the real world, the routine at our house is to turn on CNN and log into the WELL.

After News is Hosts, where the hottest stuff usually happens. The hosts community is a story in itself. The success of the WELL in its first five years, all would agree, rested heavily on the efforts of the conference hosts -- online characters who had created the character of the first neighborhoods and kept the juice flowing between one another all over the WELL, but most pointedly in the Hosts conference. Some spicy reading in the Archives conference originated from old hosts' disputes — and substantial arguments about the implications of CMC for civil rights, intellectual property, censorship, by a lot of people who know what they are talking about, mixed liberally with a lot of other people who don't know what they are talking about, but love to talk anyway, via keyboard and screen, for years on end.

In this virtual place, the pillars of the community and the worst offenders of public sensibilities are in the same group — the hosts. At their best and their worst, this ten percent of the online population put out the words that the other ninety percent keep paying to read. Like good hosts at any social gathering, they make newcomers welcome, keep the conversation flowing, mediate disputes, clean up messes, and throw out miscreants, if need be. A WELL host is part salon keeper, part saloon keeper, part talk-show host, part publisher. The only power to censor or to ban a user is the hosts' power. Policy varies from host to host, and that's the only policy. The only justice for those who misuse that power is the forced participation in weeks of debilitating and vituperative post-mortem.

The hosts community is part long-running soap opera, part town meeting, bar-room brawl, anarchic debating society, creative groupmind, bloody arena, union hall, playpen, encounter group. The Hosts conference is extremely general, from technical questions to personal attacks. The Policy conference is supposed to be restricted to matters of what WELL policy is, or ought to be. The part-delusion, part-accurate perception that the hosts and other users have strong influence over WELL policy is part of what feeds debate here, and a strong element in the libertarian reputation of the stereotypical WELLite. After fighting my way through a day's or hour's worth of the Hot New Dispute in News, Hosts, and Policy, I check on the conferences I host — Info, Virtual Communities, Virtual Reality. After that my list directs me, at the press of the return key, to the first new topic or response in the Parenting, Writers', Grateful Dead tours, Telecommunication, Macintosh, Weird, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Whole Earth, Books, Media, Men on the WELL, Miscellaneous, and Unclear conferences.

The social dynamics of the WELL spawn new conferences in response to different kinds of pressures. Whenever a hot interpersonal or doctrinal issue breaks out, for example, people want to stage the brawl or make a dramatic farewell speech or shocking disclosure or serious accusation in the most heavily-visited area of the WELL, which is usually the place that others want to be a Commons — a place where people from different sub-communities can come to find out what is going on around the WELL, outside the WELL, where they can pose questions to the committee of the whole. When too many discussions of what the WELL's official policy ought to be, about censorship or intellectual property or the way people treat each other, break out, they tended to clutter the place people went to get a quick sense of what is happening outside their neighborhoods. So the Policy conference was born.

But then the WELL grew larger and it wasn't just policy but governance and social issues like political correctness or the right of users to determine the social rules of the system. Several years and six thousand more users after the fission of the News and Policy conferences, another conference split off News — "MetaWELL," a conference was created strictly to discussions about the WELL itself, it nature, its situation (often dire), its future.

Grabbing attention in the Commons is a powerful act. Some people seem drawn to performing there; others burst out there in acts of desperation, after one history of frustration or another. Dealing with people who are so consistently off-topic or apparently deeply grooved into incoherence, long-windedness, scatology, is one of the events that challenges a community to decide what its values really are, or ought to be.

Something is happening here. I'm not sure anybody understands it yet. I know that the WELL and the net is an important part of my life and I have to decide for myself whether this is a new way to make genuine commitments to other human beings, or a silicon-induced illusion of community. I urge others to help pursue that question in a variety of ways, while we have the time. The political dimensions of CMC might lead to situations that would pre-empt questions of other social effects; responses to the need for understanding the power- relationships inherent in CMC are well represented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and others. We need to learn a lot more, very quickly, about what kind of place our minds are homesteading.

The future of virtual communities is connected to the future of everything else, starting with the most precious thing people have to gain or lose — political freedom. The part played by communication technologies in the disintegration of communism, the way broadcast television pre-empted the American electoral process, the power of fax and CMC networks during times of political repression like Tienamen Square and the Soviet Coup attempt, the power of citizen electronic journalism, the power-maneuvering of law enforcement and intelligence agencies to restrict rights of citizen access and expression in cyberspace, all point to the future of CMC as a close correlate of future political scenarios. More important than civilizing cyberspace is ensuring its freedom as a citizen-to-citizen communication and publication medium; laws that infringe equity of access to and freedom of expression in cyberspace could transform today's populist empowerment into yet another instrument of manipulation. Will "electronic democracy" be an accurate description of political empowerment that grows out of the screen of a computer? Or will it become a brilliant piece of disinfotainment, another means of manipulating emotions and manufacturing public opinion in the service of power.

Who controls what kinds of information is communicated in the international networks where virtual communities live? Who censors, and what is censored? Who safeguards the privacy of individuals in the face of technologies that make it possible to amass and retrieve detailed personal information about every member of a large population? The answers to these political questions might make moot any more abstract questions about cultures in cyberspace. Democracy itself depends on the relatively free flow of communications. The following words by James Madison are carved in marble at the United States Library of Congress: "A popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives." It is time for people to arm themselves with power about the future of CMC technology.

Who controls the market for relationships? Will the world's increasingly interlinked, increasingly powerful, decreasingly costly communications infrastructure be controlled by a small number of very large companies? Will cyberspace be privatized and parceled out to those who can afford to buy into the auction? If political forces do not seize the high ground and end today's freewheeling exchange of ideas, it is still possible for a more benevolent form of economic control to stunt the evolution of virtual communities, if a small number of companies gain the power to put up toll-roads in the information networks, and smaller companies are not able to compete with them.

Or will there be an open market, in which newcomers like Apple or Microsoft can become industry leaders? The playing field in the global telecommunications industry will never be level, but the degree of individual freedom available through telecommunication technologies in the future may depend upon whether the market for goods and services in cyberspace remains open for new companies to create new uses for CMC.

I present these observations as a set of questions, not as answers. I believe that we need to try to understand the nature of CMC, cyberspace, and virtual communities in every important context -- politically, economically, socially , culturally, cognitively. Each different perspective reveals something that the other perspectives do not reveal. Each different discipline fails to see something that another discipline sees very well. We need to think as teams here, across boundaries of academic discipline, industrial affiliation, nation, to understand, and thus perhaps regain control of, the way human communities are being transformed by communication technologies. We can't do this solely as dispassionate observers, although there is certainly a huge need for the detached assessment of social science. But community is a matter of the heart and the gut as well as the head. Some of the most important learning will always have to be done by jumping into one corner or another of cyberspace, living there, and getting up to your elbows in the problems that virtual communities face.

* * * * *

HOWARD RHEINGOLD is the author of The Virtual Community, Virtual Reality, Tools for Thought, and other books. He is also the editor of the Millenium Whole Earth Catalog (forthcoming) and is a columnist for the San Francisco Examiner. Contact: hlr@well.sf.ca.us

{9} ARTICLE

(Copyright 1992, Howard H. Frederick)

COMPUTER NETWORKS AND THE EMERGENCE OF GLOBAL CIVIL SOCIETY:

The Case of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC)

by Howard H. Frederick, Ph.D. 1

(Paper Presented at the Annual Conference of the Peace Studies Association, Boulder, CO,

February 28, 1992 Workshop on "How to Utilize Communications Networks for Peace Studies")

WHEN IN THE COURSE OF HUMAN EVENTS it becomes possible to dissolve the communication frontiers that have divided peoples one from another and to assume among the Powers of the Earth the interdependent and balanced communication relations to which the Development of Technology has entitled them,

WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS TO BE SELF-EVIDENT, that all human communicators are created equally, endowed with certain Unalienable Rights, among them the right to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. The Right to Communicate includes the right to be informed and well as to inform, the right to reply as well as to listen, the right to be addressed as well as to speak and the right for communication resources to satisfy human social, economic and cultural needs.

THAT TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS, a global computer communications network has now arisen benefiting the Common Good of Humankind by loosing the bonds of the marketplace and the strictures of government on the media of communications and allowing that part of human endeavor known as global civil society to communicate outside the barriers imposed by commercial or governmental interests.

* * * * *

These are possible opening lines of what might be called a Charter of Communication Interdependence of the global nongovernmental movements for peace, human rights and environmental preservation. The growth of such global interdependent communication relations has been greatly accelerated by the advent of decentralizing communication technologies such as computer networking. Global civil society as represented by the "NGO Movement" (nongovernmental organizations) now represents a force in international relations, one that circumvents hegemony of markets and of governments. This paper outlines the concept of global civil society and the NGO Movement, describes the obstacles that they face from governments and transnational corporations, and sketches the emergence of the Association for Progressive Communications network as an illustration of this worldwide phenomenon.

* * * * *

What we call "community" used to be limited to face-to-face dialogue among people in the same physical space, a dialogue that reflected mutual concerns and a common culture. For thousands of years, people had little need for long-distance communication because they lived very close to one another. The medieval peasant's entire life was spent within a radius of no more twenty-five miles from the place of birth. Even at the beginning of our century, the average person still lived in the countryside and knew of the world only through travelers' tales.

Today, of course, communications technologies have woven parts of the world together into an electronic web. No longer is community or dialogue restricted to a geographical place. With the advent of the fax machine, telephones, international publications, and computers, personal and professional relationships can be maintained irrespective of time and place. Communication relationships are no longer restricted to place, but are distributed through space. Today we are all members of many global "non-place" communities.

In the last decade there has emerged a new kind of global community, one that has increasingly become a force in international relations. We speak of the emergence of a global civil society, that part of our collective lives that is neither market nor government but is so often inundated by them. Still somewhat inarticulate and flexing its muscles, global civil society is best represented in the global "NGO Movement," nongovernmental organizations and citizens advocacy groups uniting to fight planetary problems whose scale confound local or even national solutions. Previously isolated from one another, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are flexing their muscles at the United Nations and other world forums as their power and capacity to communicate increase.

The concept of civil society arose with John Locke, the English philosopher and political theorist. It implied a defense of human society at the national level against the power of the state and the inequalities of the marketplace. For Locke, civil society was that part of civilization — from the family and the church to cultural life and education — that was outside of the control of government or market but was increasingly marginalized by them. Locke saw the importance of social movements to protect the public sphere from these commercial and governmental interests.

From the industrial age to the present, mercantilist and power-political interests pushed civil society to the edge. In most countries, civil society even lacked its own channels of media communication. It was speechless and powerless, isolated behind the artifice of national boundaries, rarely able to reach out and gain strength in contact with counterparts around the world. What we now call the "NGO Movement" began in the middle of the last century with a trickle of organizations and has now become a flood of activity. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) today encompass private citizens and national interest groups from all spheres of human endeavor. Their huge increase in number and power is due in no small measure to the development of globe-girdling communications technologies.2

As Dutch social theorist Cees J. Hamelink has written, we are seeing a new phenomenon emerging on the world scene — global civil society, best articulated by the NGO movement.3 New communications technologies now facilitate communication among and between the world's national civil societies, especially within the fields of human rights, consumer protection, peace, gender equality, racial justice, and environmental protection. From Earth Summit to GATT, from the United Nations General Assembly to the Commission on Human Rights, NGOs have become the most important embodiment of this new force in international relations.

The development of communications technologies has vastly transformed the capacity of global civil society to build coalitions and networks. In times past, communication transaction clusters formed among nation-states, colonial empires, regional economies and alliances — for example, medieval Europe, the Arab world, China and Japan, West African kingdoms, the Caribbean slave and sugar economies. Today new and equally powerful forces have emerged on the world stage — the rain forest protection movement, the human rights movement, the campaign against the arms trade, alternative news agencies, and planetary computer networks.

* * * * *

The continued growth and influence of global civil society face two fundamental problems: increasing monopolization of global information and communication by transnational corporations; and the increasing disparities between the world's info-rich and info-poor populations. Global computer networking makes an electronic "end-run" around the first problem and provides an appropriate technological solution to overcome the second.

Hamelink observed that the very powers that obstructed civil society at the national level — markets and governments — also controlled most of the communication flows at the global level. Government monopolies still control a huge share of the world's air waves and telecommunications flows. Even worse, a handful of immense corporations now dominate the world's mass media. If present trends continue, Bagdikian predicted, by the turn of the century "five to ten corporate giants will control most of the world's important newspapers, magazines, books, broadcast stations, movies, recordings and videocassettes." 4 Telecommunications infrastructures and data networks must also be included in this gloomy account. Today's "lords of the global village" are huge corporations that "exert a homogenizing power over ideas, culture and commerce that affects populations larger than any in history. Neither Caesar nor Hitler, Franklin Roosevelt nor any Pope, has commanded as much power to shape the information on which so many people depend to make decisions about everything from whom to vote for to what to eat." 5

Why is this happening? The most fundamental reason is that fully integrated corporate control of media production and dissemination reaps vast profits and creates huge corporate empires. Already more than two-thirds of the U.S. work force is now engaged in information-related jobs.6 Almost half the Gross National Product of the 14 most industrialized countries, and one-quarter of all international trade, comes from services.7 Telecommunications services grew by 800 percent worldwide in the 1980s. According to Unesco, the total world information and communication economy in 1986 was $1,185 billion, about 8 to 9 percent of total world output, of which $515 billion was in the United States.8 Growth in this sector is accelerating and it is no surprise that a few large corporations now predominate in the world's information flow. While there are more than one hundred news agencies around the world, only five -- Associated Press, United Press International, Reuters, Agence France Presse, and TASS -- control about ninety-six percent of the world's news flows.9 Such corporations as Sears, IBM, H&R Block, and Lockheed control the bulk of the videotex information markets.

In addition to transnational control of information, global civil society and the NGO movements confront the increasing gap between the world's info-rich and info-poor populations. In virtually every medium, the disparities are dramatic.

Ninety-five percent of all computers are in the developed countries.

While developing countries have three-quarters the world's population, they can manage only thirty percent of the world's newspaper output.

About sixty-five percent of the world's population experiences an acute book shortage.

Readers of the New York Times consume more newsprint each Sunday than the average African does in one year.

The only Third World country to meet Unesco's basic media standards for per capita numbers of newspapers, radio, and cinema is Cuba.

Only seventeen countries in the world had a Gross National Product larger than total U.S. advertising expenditures.

The United States and Commonwealth of Independent States, with only 15 percent of the world's population, use more than 50 percent of the geostationary orbit. The Third World uses less than 10 percent.

Ten developed countries, with 20 percent of the world's population, accounted for almost three-quarters of all telephone lines. The United States had as many telephone lines as all of Asia; the Netherlands, as many as all of Africa; Italy, as many as all of Latin America; Tokyo as many as all of Africa.10

Even within the United States we have the info-rich and the info-poor. From the streets of Manhattan to the barrios of Los Angeles, from the homeless to the immigrants populations, from Appalachia to the inner cities, there are millions upon millions of our fellow Americans who cannot read or type, do not have access to computers, do not consume newsprint, cannot afford a book.

* * * * *

To counter these twin trends that threaten to engulf civil society with a highly controlled web of commercialization, there has arisen a worldwide metanetwork of highly decentralized technologies — computers, fax machines, amateur radio, packet data satellites, VCRs, video cameras and the like. They are "decentralized" in the sense that they democratize information flow, break down hierarchies of power, and make communication from top and bottom just as easy as from horizon to horizon. For the first time in history, the forces of peace and environmental preservation have acquired the communication tools and intelligence gathering technologies previously the province of the military, government and transnational corporations.

Many people, organizations and technologies are responsible for this development, but one organization has distinguished itself by specializing in the communication needs of the global NGO Movement. The history of the Association for Progressive Communication (APC) dates back to 1984, when Ark Communications Institute, the Center for Innovative Diplomacy, Community Data Processing, and the Foundation for the Arts of Peace — all located in the San Francisco Bay Area near Silicon Valley, California — joined forces to create what was then called PeaceNet, the world's first computer network dedicated exclusively to serve the needs of the movements for peace, human rights and social justice. In 1987, PeaceNet became a division of the San Francisco-based Tides Foundation, and the Institute for Global Communications (IGC) was formed to direct and support its activities.

Parallel to this, with seed money from Apple Computer and the San Francisco Foundation, in 1982 the Farallones Institute created EcoNet to advance the cause of planetary environmental protection and sustainability. Farallones transferred EcoNet to the newly-formed Institute for Global Communications in 1987. ConflictNet, dedicated to serving nonviolent conflict resolution, dispute mediation and arbitration, joined IGC in 1990. Together, these three networks — PeaceNet, EcoNet and Conflict — make up what we now refer to as the IGC Networks, the largest computer system in the world dedicated to peace, human rights and environmental preservation.

Inspired by the technological success of establishing these networks in the United States, the Institute for Global Communications began collaborating with a similar network in the United Kingdom, London- based GreenNet. To raise funds, rock stars Little Steven and Peter Gabriel performed two "Hurricane Irene" concerts in Tokyo in December 1986. Thus we can say that the idea of a global network for peace, human rights, and the environment was born in Peter Gabriel's New York hotel room in 1987 when the money was distributed and the original charter was drafted on a laptop computer.

With this impetus, in 1987 GreenNet and the IGC Networks joined together seamlessly demonstrating that transnational electronic communications could serve the these communities. This transatlantic link was so successful that, with the support of the MacArthur, Ford and General Service foundations and the United Nations Development Program, IGC helped to establish five more networks, in Sweden, Canada, Brazil, Nicaragua and Australia. This quickly led in 1990 to the founding of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) to coordinate this global operation. Today, more than 15,000 subscribers in 90 countries are fully interconnected through low-cost personal computers and software provided free of charge to APC partners. These groups constitute a veritable honor role of nongovernmental organizations working in these fields, including Amnesty International, Friends of the Earth, Oxfam, Greenpeace and many labor unions.

* * * * *

APC members are fond of saying that they "dial locally and act globally." Today, there are APC partner networks in the United States, Nicaragua, Brazil, Russia, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Sweden and Germany and affiliated systems in Uruguay, Costa Rica, Czechoslovakia, Bolivia, Kenya and other countries (see "APC Network Topology"). The APC now even has an affiliated network in Cuba and can boast of providing the first free flow of information between the United States and Cuba in thirty years. Dozens of FidoNet system connect with the APC through "gateways" located at the main nodes. At the hub of this system is APC's largest computer, known as "cdp" or Community Data Processing, located in Silicon Valley, California.

The APC Networks can now set up complete electronic mail and conferencing systems on small, inexpensive appropriate-technology microcomputers for between $5,000 and $15,000 with software developed since 1984 and available to partner systems at no charge. Individual users typically make a local phone call to connect to their host machine, which stores up mail and conference postings until contacted by a partner computer in the network, typically about every two hours. Aside from its low cost, this technological configuration is appropriate for countries whose telecommunications infrastructure is still poor. The file transfer protocols used between the computers have a high level of resiliency to line noise and satellite delays, and if an interruption does occur, they are able to resume a transfer right at the point it was interrupted. This is particularly important for transporting large binary files, when the chances of losing the connection over poor quality telephone lines is significant.

Within the APC, main nodes at London (GreenNet), Stockholm (NordNet), Toronto (Web) and San Francisco (IGC Networks) bring the communication flow in from regional nodes. Messages are then exchanged and distributed around the world so that a message from Australia can end up on a screen in Estonia in two to four hours. Messages can be sent through these machines to outbound fax and telex servers, to commercial hosts such as Dialcom and GeoNet, and to academic networks such as Janet, BitNet, EARN, and UseNet/UUCP. The entire network is funneled on to the Internet through the IGC Networks, which are a full Internet host (igc.org). The price is low by any standard; in the United States hourly connect charges range as low as $3 per hour.

Simply put, electronic mail (or "email") connects two correspondents through a computer and a modem to a "host" computer. One user, let's say a peace researcher in Finland, uses her computer to dial into a local data network (analogous to the telephone network but for data traffic instead of voice). She either types in a message or "uploads" a prepared text, into her host computer, in this case, NordNet in Stockholm. Within a short time that message is transferred via high-speed modems through the telephone lines to the host system of her correspondent, a university peace studies professor in Hawaii. His host system is the PeaceNet computer in California. At his convenience, he connects to his host and "downloads" the message. This miraculous feat, near instantaneous communication across half the globe, costs each user only the price of a local phone call plus a small transmission charge.

Unlike systems used by the large commercial services, the APC Networks are highly decentralized and preserve local autonomy. One microcomputer serves a geographical region and is in turn connected with other "nodes." The local node collects the international mail, bundles and compresses it, then sends it to the appropriate foreign messaging system for distribution using a special high-speed connection.

In addition to email, the APC Networks also oversee about 900 electronic "conferences" — basically a collective mailbox open to all users — on subjects from AIDS to Zimbabwe. It is here that people can publicize events, prepare joint proposals, disseminate vital information and find the latest data. APC conferences carries a number of important alternative news sources, including Inter Press Service (the Third World's largest news agency); Environmental News Service (Vancouver), the United Nations Information Centre news service ; Agencia Latinoamericana de Informacion (Ecuador, in Spanish); Alternet (Washington, DC); Moscow News (Russia, in English); New Liberation News Service (Cambridge, MA); Pacific News Service (San Francisco, CA); World Perspectives Shortwave Monitoring Service (Madison, WI); and Yugofax Information Services (London).

* * * * *

The first large-scale impact of these decentralizing technologies on international politics happened in 1989. When the Chinese government massacred its citizens near Tianamen Square, Chinese students transmitted the most detailed, vivid reports instantly by fax, telephone and computer networks to activists throughout the world. They organized protests meetings, fundraising, speaking tours and political appeals. Their impact was so immense and immediate that the Chinese government tried to cut telephone links to the exterior and started to monitor the Usenet computer conferences where much of this was taking place.11

Another example is the 1991 Gulf War, where computer networks such as PeaceNet and its partner networks in the APC exploded with activity. While mainstream channels of communication were blocked by Pentagon censorship, the APC Networks were carrying accurate reports of the effects of the Gulf War on the Third World, Israel and the Arab countries and the worldwide anti-war movement. For a movement caught off-guard, amazingly smooth coordination took place rapidly across the country and the world. Competing groups agreed on common platforms, set synchronized action dates, and planned large-scale events across vast distances. Computerists seized the technology and made it work.

During the attempted coup in the Soviet Union in August 1990, the APC partners used telephone circuits to circumvent official control. Normally, the outdated Russian telephone system requires hordes of operators to connect international calls by hand, and callers must compete fiercely for phone lines. But the APC partner networks found other routes for data flow. While the usual link with Moscow is over international phone lines, APC technicians also rigged a link over a more tortuous route. That plan saw Soviet news dispatches gathered through a loose network of personal computer bulletin board systems in Moscow and Leningrad. The dispatches which were sent by local phone calls to the Baltic states, then to NordNet Sweden, and then to London-based GreenNet, which maintains an open link with the rest of the APC.

Later this year, the Association for Progressive Communications will play a major role in providing communications services for environmentalists, non-governmental organizations and citizen activists before, during, and after the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment at Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The largest United Nations conference in history, UNCED is the first global gathering on the environment since 1972. It is also the first global summit to take place fully within the age of the NGO and computer technologies. APC maintains over 30 electronic conferences on UNCED documents, agendas, reports, discussion and debate. This information sharing service allows official UN documents to be accessible to citizens around the world, thus providing broader citizen participation in a heads-of-state summit than has ever been possible before. APC's Brazilian member network, AlterNex, was chosen to spearhead communications services for non-governmental organizations at UNCED itself.

Around the globe, other APC networks are working on issues of peace, social justice, and environmental protection. In Australia, the members of the Pegasus network are working to hook up the affluent 18 percent of the electorate that votes Green, which would make the party more powerful. Back in the United States, EcoNet is helping high school students monitor water quality in local rivers. One such experiment involved 50 students along the Rouge River in Michigan. When in 1991 neo-Nazi skinheads ransacked a Dresden neighborhood populated by foreigners, users of the German partner network ComLink posted news of the event. Soon Dresden newspapers were flooded with faxes from around the world deploring the action. All in all, tens of thousands of messages a day pass back and forth within the "APC village," and the number grows every day.

* * * * *

The partner networks of the Association for Progressive Communications have built a truly global network dedicated to the free and balanced flow of information. The APC Charter mandates its partners to serve people working toward "peace, the prevention of warfare, elimination of militarism, protection of the environment, furtherance of human rights and the rights of peoples, achievement of social and economic justice, elimination of poverty, promotion of sustainable and equitable development, advancement of participatory democracy, and nonviolent conflict resolution."

The APC Networks are trying to make an "end-run" around the information monopolies and to construct a truly alternative information infrastructure for the challenges that lie ahead. By providing a low-cost, appropriate solution for nongovernmental organizations and poor countries, they are attempting to civilize and democratize cyberspace.

We are moving into a "new world order." The age of democracy may have had its beginnings in the French and the American revolutions, but only today is it finally reaching the hearts and minds of sympathetic populations around the world. This "preferred" world order of democratic change depends heavily on the efficiency of communication systems.

Perhaps the most durable impact of the APC Networks is their promotion of that illusive phenomenon known as "world public opinion." One way that we can confirm the ascendance of global civil society is to examine the accumulating evidence for world public opinion, a cosmopolitan convergence of interactively communicating national civil societies. The MacBride Report observed that world public opinion is "still in the process of formation, and thus fragile, heterogeneous, easily abused."<12> As we approach the third millennium, communications technologies such as the Association for Progressive Communication (APC) networks are transforming international relations. They have greatly accelerated the rise of global civil society and the NGO Movement. Not only do they report violations and victories of human rights; they are also demonstrating that communication and information are central to human rights and to the emergence of democratic, decentralized planet-loving movements.

NOTES

1. Permission to reprint granted individually by author. Howard H. Frederick has taught communications and international relations for more than a decade. Recently he was Fulbright Professor of Communication at the University of Salzburg in Austria. Previously he taught at Ohio University, Mary Baldwin College, San Francisco State University, and California State University. The author of Global Communication and International Relations (Brooks-Cole, 1992) and Cuban-American Radio Wars (Ablex, 1986) and numerous articles, he has lectured and worked in Europe and Latin America. Frederick was formerly Director of PeaceNet and currently directs news services at the Institute for Global Communications, a worldwide computer network based in San Francisco, California. He is President of the International Communication Section of the International Association for Mass Communication Research (IAMCR/AIERI). He also serves in an advisory capacity with the Center for Media and Values in Los Angeles, and Radio for Peace International in Costa Rica. He lives in Los Angeles and works in San Francisco, commuting across California weekly by airplane.

2. International Encyclopedia of Communications, s.v. "International Organizations," by Hamid Mowlana. See also Union of International Associations, Yearbook of International Organizations, 1987-88 (Munich: K.G. Saur, 1987), Volume 1, Appendix 7, Table 4.

3. Cees J. Hamelink, "Global Communication: Plea for Civil Action," in Informatics in Food and Nutrition, B. V. Hofsten, ed. (Stockholm: Royal Academy of Sciences, 1991), pp. 5-8.

See also "Communication: The Most Violated Human Right," Inter Press Service dispatch, May 9, 1991, below.

amsterdam, may 9 (ips) -- the most violated human right in the world today is the right to freedom of expression, cees hamelink, head of the international association for mass communication research, argued here thursday.

speaking at a seminar on 'communication, democracy and development', hamelink said that when channels for expression were left in the hands of those who control either the state or the market, "we have lost our freedom of speech."

"nothing less than a revolt of the communications clients against the forces that keep us ignorant is needed," he argued.

"if any company had begun to produce the kind of sub-standard product that cnn (cable news network) gave us day after day during the gulf war, we would refuse to buy it," hamelink said.

both the state and the market had failed to provide cheap, reliable information, and the opportunity for participation, he said.

the new social movements which had campaigned in other fields had only now begun to realize that culture and information were too important to be left to these two agencies, prof. hamelink stated.

for too long they were caught up in the atmosphere of powerlessness created by the ubiquitous nature of media.

two important elements had come into existence, he noted. the first was the diverse forms of cheap information technology which could be used by sufficiently skilled social movements.

the other was the increasing awareness around the world that values need to be defended. there is less trust in political systems at present than there was in the social movements of the 60s and 70s.

"then, they believed that if they tried to grab some of the power of the state, they could change society. but today, their consciousness is different. they are more wary of the state."

hamelink argued that the gulf war would further this process. "it was an enormous demonstration of the deliberate use of disinformation and propaganda," he said.

the issue of communication had been overlooked in the development debate because it was much more personal and individual and more difficult to mobilize people around.

halle hansen, head of the norwegian development agency, norad, provided evidence for this view from experience in india and africa.

he said that the failure of democracy and development efforts in africa was the direct result of the lack of communication and information on that continent.

"the contrasts between the two regions is startling," he said. "in india, you have about 20,000 non-governmental organizations. there are about 20,000 functioning newspapers and periodicals there, leading to a fantastic plurality in the society."

hansen rejected arguments that the mass media have ever been an agent for social change. "they were propelled to take up issues such as environment and peace by the social movements," he argued. "they have always been the partner of the establishment."

but roberto savio, director-general of inter press service (ips), warned that the issue of information and communication was slowly and steadily disappearing from the development debate.

ministries of information were disappearing all over the third world, he said. governments felt that to touch the issue of information was counterproductive.

the state was no longer investing in information and communication infrastructure. there was no longer any discussion of communication policy.

this, he revealed, was also happening at the level of the international donor agencies. only 0.4 percent of development aid was devoted to communications development.

new publications on development fail to make any mention of the issue of communication.

"at the same time, newspapers are shrinking in the third world," savio stated. "the prevailing theory is that the market place will put everything in order, with the formula that the united states will teach the world how to develop itself."

this was creating serious distortions in the south, he warned. (end/ips/ic/nm/fn)

4. Ben Bagdikian, "The Lords of the Global Village," The Nation, June 12, 1989, p. 805.

5. Ben H. Bagdikian, "The Lords of the Global Village," The Nation, June 12, 1989, p. 807.

6. "U.S. International Communication and Information Policy," Gist (Department of State), December 1988, p. 1.

7. Meheroo Jussawalla, "Can We Apply New Trade Rules to Information Trade?" in International Information Economy Handbook, eds. G. Russell Pipe and Chris Brown (Springfield, VA: Transnational Data Reporting Service, 1985), p. 11.

8. Unesco, World Communication Report (Paris: Unesco, 1990), p. 83.

9. Sources: Hamid Mowlana, Global Information and World Communication: New Frontiers in International Relations (New York: Longman, 1986), p. 28; International Journalism Institute, The Mass Media in the World, 1987, p. 40, citing World Communication Report (draft), UNESCO, 1988, p. 1.54; World Communication Report (Paris: UNESCO, 1989), pp. 136-141.

There are more than one hundred news agencies around the world, yet five transnational news agencies controlled about ninety-six percent of the world's news flows.

WORDS PER DAY OF MAJOR NEWS AGENCIES, 1986-87 (MILLIONS)

17.000 Associated Press (AP)

14.000 United Press International (UPI)

4.000 TASS

1.500 Reuters

1.000 Agence France Presse (AFP)

500 EFE (Spain)

300 Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (Italy)

115 Deutsche Presse Agentur (Germany)

150 Inter Press Service (Rome, New York)

100 Non-Aligned News Pool

075 Telegrafska Agencia Nova Jugoslavya (Tanjug)

025 Caribbean News Agency

020 Pan African News Agency

018 Gulf News Agency

Source: World Communication Report (Paris: UNESCO, 1989), pp. 136-141; Draft World Communication Report (Paris: UNESCO, 1988), p. 1.54.

10. Howard H. Frederick, Global Communications and International Relations (Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks-Cole, 1992), chapter on "The Dimensions of Global Communication."

11. John S. Quarterman, The Matrix: Computer Networks and Conferencing Systems Worldwide (Bedford, MA: Digital Press, 1990), pp. xxiii-xxiv.

12. International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems [MacBride Commission], One World, Many Voices (Paris: Unesco, 1980), p. 198.

Contact: Howard Frederick Email: hfrederick@igc.org

Institute for Global Communications

18 De Boom Street

San Francisco, CA 94107

{10} PRACTICE

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS WITH AJAHN CHAH

QUESTION: I'm trying very hard in my practice but don't seem to be getting anywhere.

ANSWER: This is very important. Don't try to get anywhere in the practice. The very desire to be free or to be enlightened will be the desire that prevents your freedom. You can try as hard as you wish, practice ardently night and day, but if it is still with the desire to achieve in mind, you will never find peace. The energy from this desire will be cause for doubt and restlessness. No matter how long or how hard you practice, wisdom will not arise from desire. So, simply let go. Watch the mind and body mindfully but don't try to achieve anything. Don't even cling to the practice of enlightenment.

QUESTION: What about sleep? How much should I sleep?

ANSWER: Don't ask me, I can't tell you. A good average for some is four hours a night. What is important, though, is that you watch and know yourself. If you try to go with too little sleep, the body will feel uncomfortable and mindfulness will be difficult to sustain. Too much sleep leads to a dull or a restless mind. Find the natural balance for yourself. Carefully watch the mind and body and keep track of sleep needs until you find the optimum. If you wake up and then roll over for a snooze, this is defilement. Establish mindfulness as soon as your eyes open.

Q: How about eating? How much should I eat?

A: Eating is the same as sleeping. You must know yourself. Food must be consumed to meet bodily needs. Look at your food as medicine. Are you eating so much that you only feel sleepy after the meal and are you getting fatter every day? Stop! Examine your own body and mind. There is no need to fast. Instead, experiment with the amount of food you take. Find the natural balance for your body. Put all your food together in your bowl following the ascetic practice. Then you can easily judge the amount you take. Watch yourself carefully as you eat. Know yourself. The essence of our practice is just this. There is nothing special you must do. Only watch. Examine yourself. Watch the mind. Then you will know what is the natural balance for your own practice.

Q: Are mind of Asians and Westerners different?

A: Basically there is no difference. Outer customs and language may appear different, but the human mind has natural characteristics which are the same for all people. Greed and hatred are the same in an Eastern or a Western mind. Suffering and the cessation of suffering are the same for all people.

Q: Is it advisable to read a lot or study the scriptures as a part of practice?

A: The Dhamma of the Buddha is not found in books. If you want to really see for yourself what the Buddha was talking about, you don't need to bother with books. Watch your own mind. Examine to see how feelings come and go, how thoughts come and go. Don't be attached to anything. Just be mindful of whatever there is to see. This is the way to the truths of the Buddha. Be natural. Everything you do here is a chance to practice. It is all Dhamma. When you do your chores, try to be mindful. If you are emptying a spittoon or cleaning a toilet, don't feel you are doing it as a favor for anyone else. There is Dhamma in emptying spittoons. Don't feel you are practicing only when sitting still, cross-legged. Some of you have complained that there is not enough time to meditate. Is there enough time to breathe? This is your meditation: mindfulness, naturalness in whatever you do.

Q: Why don't we have daily interviews with the teacher?

A: If you have questions, you are welcome to come and ask them any time. But we don't need daily interviews here. If I answer your every little question, you will never answer the process of doubt in your own mind. It is essential that you learn to examine yourself, to interview yourself. Listen carefully to the lecture every few days, then use this teaching to compare with your own practice. Is it the same? Is it different? Why do you have doubts? Who is it that doubts? Only through self-examination can you understand.

Q: Sometimes I worry about the monks' discipline. If I kill insects accidentally, is this bad?

A: Sīla or discipline and morality are essential to our practice, but you must not cling to the rules blindly. In killing animals or in breaking other rules, the important thing is intention. Know your own mind. You should not be excessively concerned about the monks' discipline. If it is used properly, it supports the practice, but some monks are so worried about the petty rules that they can't sleep well. Discipline is not to be carried as a burden. In our practice here the foundation is discipline, good discipline plus the ascetic rules and practices. Being mindful and careful of even the many supporting rules as well as the basic 227 precepts has great benefit. It makes life very simple. There need be no wondering about how to act, so you can avoid thinking and instead just be simply mindful. The discipline enables us to live together harmoniously; the community runs smoothly. Outwardly everyone looks and acts the same. Discipline and morality are the stepping stones for further concentration and wisdom. By proper use of the monks' discipline and the ascetic precepts, we are forced to live simply, to limit our possessions. So here we have the complete practice of the Buddha: refrain from evil and do good, live simply keeping to basic needs, purify the mind. That is, be watchful of our mind and body in all postures: sitting, standing, walking or lying, know yourself.

Q: What can I do about doubts? Some days I'm plagued with doubts about the practice or my own progress, or the teacher.

A: Doubting is natural. Everyone starts out with doubts. You can learn a great deal from them. What is important is that you don't identify with your doubts: that is, don't get caught up in them. This will spin your mind in endless circles. Instead, watch the whole process of doubting, of wondering. See who it is that doubts. See how doubts come and go. Then you will no longer be victimized by your doubts. You will step outside of them and your mind will be quiet. You can see how all things come and go. Just let go of what you are attached to. Let go of your doubts and simply watch. This is how to end doubting.

Q: What about other methods of practice? These days there seem to be so many teachers and so many different systems of meditation that it is confusing.

A: It is like going into town. One can approach from the north, from the southeast, from many roads. Often these systems just differ outwardly. Whether you walk one way or another, fast or slow, if you are mindful, it is all the same. There is one essential point that all good practice must eventually come to -- not clinging. In the end, all meditation systems must be let go of. Neither can one cling to the teacher. If a system leads to relinquishment, to not clinging, then it is correct practice.

You may wish to travel, to visit other teachers and try other systems. Some of you have already done so. This is a natural desire. You will find out that a thousand questions asked and knowledge of many systems will not bring you to the truth. Eventually you will get bored. You will see that only by stopping and examining your own mind can you find out what the Buddha talked about. No need to go searching outside yourself. Eventually you must return to face your own true nature. Here is where you can understand the Dhamma.

Q: A lot of times it seems that many monks here are not practicing. They look sloppy or unmindful. This disturbs me.

A: It is not proper to watch other people. This will not help your practice. If you are annoyed, watch the annoyance in your own mind. If others' discipline is bad or they are not good monks, that is not for you to judge. You will not discover wisdom watching others. Monks' discipline is a tool to use for your own meditation. It is not a weapon to use to criticize or find fault. No one can do your practice for you, nor can you do practice for anyone else. Just be mindful of your own doings. This is the way to practice.

Q: I have been extremely careful to practice sense restraint. I always keep my eyes lowered and am mindful of every little action I do. When eating, for example, I take a long time and try to see each touch: chewing, tasting, swallowing, etc. I take each step very deliberately and carefully. Am I practicing properly?

A: Sense restraint is proper practice. We should be mindful of it throughout the day. But don't overdo it! Walk and eat and act naturally. And then develop natural mindfulness of what is going on within yourself. Don't force your meditation not force yourself into awkward patterns. This is another form of craving. Be patient. Patience and endurance are necessary. If you act naturally and are mindful, wisdom will come naturally too.

Q: Is it necessary to sit for very long stretches?

A: No, sitting for hours on end is not necessary. Some people think that the longer you can sit, the wiser you must be. I have seen chickens sit on their nests for days on end! Wisdom comes from being mindful in all postures. Your practice should begin as you awaken in the morning. It should continue until you fall asleep. Don't be concerned about how long you can sit. What is important is only that you keep watchful whether you are working or sitting or going to the bathroom.

Each person has his own natural pace. Some of you will die at age fifty, some at age sixty-five, and some at age ninety. So, too, your practice will not be all identical. Don't think or worry about this. Try to be mindful and let things take their natural course. Then your mind will become quieter and quieter in any surroundings. It will become still like a clear forest pool. Then all kinds of wonderful and rare animals will come to drink at the pool. You will see clearly the nature of all things (sankhāras) in the world. You will see many wonderful and strange things come and go. But you will be still. Problems will arise and you will see through them immediately. This is the happiness of the Buddha.

Q: I still have very many thoughts. My mind wanders a lot even though I am trying to be mindful.

A: Don't worry about this. Try to keep your mind in the present. Whatever there is that arises in the mind, just watch it. Let go of it. Don't even wish to be rid of thoughts. Then the mind will reach its natural state. No discriminating between good and bad, hot and cold, fast and slow. No me and no you, no self at all. Just what there is. When you walk on alms-round, no need to do anything special. Simply walk and see what there is. No need to cling to isolation or seclusion. Wherever you are, know yourself by being natural and watching. If doubts arise, watch them come and go. It's very simple. Hold on to nothing.

It is as though you are walking down a road. Periodically you will run into obstacles. When you meet defilements, just see them and just overcome them by letting go of them. Don't think about the obstacles you have passed already. Don't worry about those you have not yet seen. Stick to the present. Don't be concerned about the length of the road or about the destination. Everything is changing. Whatever you pass, do not cling to it. Eventually the mind will reach its natural balance where practice is automatic. All things will come and go of themselves.

Q: Have you ever looked at the Altar Sutra of the 6th Patriarch, Hui Neng?

A: Hui Neng's wisdom is very keen. It is very profound teaching, not easy for beginner's to understand. But if you practice with our discipline and with patience, if you practice not-clinging, you will eventually understand. Once I had a disciple who stayed in a grass-roofed hut. It rained often that rainy season and one day a strong wind blew off half the roof. He did not bother to fix it, just let it rain in. Several days passed and I asked him about his hut. He said he was practicing not-clinging. This is not-clinging without wisdom. It is about the same as the equanimity of a water buffalo. If you live a good life and live simply, if you are patient and unselfish, you will understand the wisdom of Hui Neng.

Q: You have said that śamatha and vipassanā or concentration and insight are the same. Could you explain this further?

A: It is quite simple. Concentration (śamatha) and wisdom (vipassanā) work together. First the mind becomes still by holding on to a meditation object. It is quiet and eventually this samadhi-base is the cause for wisdom or vipassanā to arise. Then the mind is still whether you sit with your eyes closed or walk around in a busy city. It's like this. Once you were a child. Now you are an adult. Are the child and the adult the same person? You can say that they are, or looking at it another way, you can say that they are different. In this way śamatha and vipassanā could also be looked at as separate. Or it is like food and feces. Food and feces could be called the same and they can be called different. Don't just believe what I say, do your practice and see for yourself. Nothing special is needed. If you examine how concentration and wisdom arise, you will know the truth for yourself. These days many people cling to the words. They call their practice vipassanā. Samatha is looked down on. Or they call their practice śamatha. It is essential to do śamatha before vipassanā, they say. All this is silly. Don't bother to think about it in this way. Simply do the practice and you'll see for yourself.

Q: Is it necessary to be able to enter absorption in our practice?

A: No, absorption is not necessary. You must establish a modicum of tranquility and one-pointedness of mind. Then you use this to examine yourself. Nothing special is needed. If absorption comes in your practice, this is OK too. Just don't hold on to it. Some people get hung up with absorption. It can be great fun to play with. You must know proper limits. If you are wise, then you will know the uses and limitations of absorption, just as you know the limitations of children versus grown men.

Q: Why do we follow the ascetic rules such as only eating out of our bowls?

A: The ascetic precepts are to help us cut defilement. By following the ones such as eating out of our bowls we can be more mindful of our food as medicine. If we have no defilements, then it does not matter how we eat. But here we use the form to make our practice simple. The Buddha did not make the ascetic precepts necessary for all monks, but he allowed them for those who wished to practice strictly. They add to our outward discipline and thereby help increase our mental resolve and strength. These rules are to be kept for yourself. Don't watch how others practice. Watch your own mind and see what is beneficial for you. The rule that we must take whatever meditation cottage assigned to us is a similarly helpful discipline. It keeps monks from being attached to their dwelling place. If they go away and return, they must take a new dwelling. This is our practice — not to cling to anything.

Q: If putting everything together in our bowls is important, why don't you as a teacher do it yourself? Don't you feel it is important for the teacher to set an example?

A: Yes, it is true, a teacher should be an example for his disciples. I don't mind that you criticize me. Ask whatever you wish. But it is important that you do not cling to the teacher. If I were absolutely perfect in outward form, it would be terrible. You would all be too attached to me. Even the Buddha would sometimes tell his disciples to do one thing and then do another himself. Your doubts in your teacher can help you. You should watch your own reactions. Do you think it is possible that I keep some food out of my bowl in dishes to feed the laymen who work around the temple?

Wisdom is for yourself to watch and develop. Take from the teacher what is good. Be aware of your own practice. If I am resting while you must all sit up, does this make you angry? If I call the color blue red or say that male is female, don't follow me blindly.

One of my teachers ate very fast. He made noises as he ate. Yet he told us to eat slowly and mindfully. I used to watch him and get very upset. I suffered, but he didn't! I watched the outside. Later I learned. Some people drive very fast but carefully. Others drive slowly and have many accidents. Don't cling to rules, to outer form. If you watch others at most ten percent of the time and watch yourself ninety percent, this is proper practice. At first I used to watch my teacher Ajahn Tong Raht and had many doubts. People even thought he was mad. He would do strange things or get very fierce with his disciples. Outside he was angry, but inside there was nothing. Nobody there. He was remarkable. He stayed clear and mindful until the moment he died.

Looking outside the self is comparing, discriminating. You will not find happiness that way. Nor will you find peace if you spend your time looking for the perfect man or the perfect teacher. The Buddha taught us to look at the Dhamma, the truth, not to look at other people.

Q: How can we overcome lust in our practice? Sometimes I feel as if I am a slave to my sexual desire.

A: Lust should be balanced by contemplation of loathsomeness. Attachment to bodily form is one extreme and one should keep in mind the opposite. Examine the body as a corpse and see the process of decay or think of the parts of the body such as lungs, spleen, fat, feces, and so forth. Remember these and visualize this loathsome aspect of the body when lust arises. This will free you from lust.

Q: How about anger? What should I do when I feel anger arising?

A: You must use loving-kindness. When angry states of mind arise in meditation, balance them by developing feelings of loving-kindness. If someone does something bad or gets angry, don't get angry yourself. If you do, you are being more ignorant than they. Be wise. Keep in mind compassion, for that person is suffering. Fill your mind with loving-kindness as if he were a dear brother. Concentrate on the feeling of loving-kindness as a meditation subject. Spread it to all beings in the world. Only through loving-kindness is hatred overcome.

Sometimes you may see other monks behaving badly. You may get annoyed. This is suffering unnecessarily. It is not yet our Dhamma. You may think like this: "He is not as strict as I am. They are not serious meditators like us. Those monks are not good monks." This is a great defilement on your part. Do not make comparisons. Do not discriminate. Let go of your opinions and watch your opinions and watch yourself. This is our Dhamma. You can't possibly make everyone act as you wish or be like you. This wish will only make you suffer. Itis a common mistake for meditators to make, but watching other people won't develop wisdom. Simply examine yourself, your feelings. This is how you will understand.

Q: I feel sleepy a great deal. It makes it hard to meditate.

A: There are many ways to overcome sleepiness. If you are sitting in the dark, move to a lighted place. Open your eyes. Get up and wash your face or take a bath. If you are sleepy, change postures. Walk a lot. Walk backwards. The fear of running into things will keep you awake. If this fails, stand still, clear the mind and imagine it is full daylight. Or sit on the edge of a high cliff or deep well. You won't dare sleep! If nothing works, then just go to sleep. Lay down carefully and try to be awake until the moment you fall asleep. Then as you awaken, get right up. Don't look at the clock or roll over. Start mindfulness from the moment you awaken.

If you find yourself sleepy everyday, try to eat less. Examine yourself. As soon as five more spoonfuls will make you full, stop. Then take water until just properly full. Go and sit. Watch your sleepiness and hunger. You must learn to balance your eating. As your practice goes on you will feel more energetic and eat less. But you must adjust yourself.

Q: Why must we do so much prostrating here?

A: Prostrating is very important. It is an outward form that is part of practice. This form should be done correctly. Bring the forehead all the way to the floor. Have the elbows near the knees and the palms of the hands on the floor about three inches apart. Prostrate slowly, be mindful of your body. It is a good remedy for our conceit. We should prostrate often. When you prostrate three times you can keep in mind the qualities of the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha, that is, the qualities of mind of purity, radiance and peace. So we use the outward form to train ourselves. Body and mind become harmonious. Don't make the mistake of watching how others prostrate. If young novices are sloppy or the aged monks appear unmindful, this is not for you to judge. People can be difficult to train. Some learn fast but others learn slowly. Judging others will only increase your pride. Watch yourself instead. Prostrate often, get rid of your pride.

Those who have really become harmonious with the Dhamma get far beyond the outward form. Everything they do is a way of prostrating. Walking, they prostrate; eating, they prostrate; defecating, they prostrate. This is because they have got beyond selfishness.

Q: What is the biggest problem of your new disciples?

A: Opinions. Views and ideas about all things. About themselves, about practice, about the teachings of the Buddha. Many of those who come here have a high rank in the community. There are wealthy merchants or college graduates, teachers and government officials. Their minds are filled with opinions about things. They are too clever to listen to others. It is like water in a cup. If a cup is filled with dirty, stale water, it is useless. Only after the old water is thrown out can the cup become useful. You must empty your minds of opinions, then you will see. Our practice goes beyond cleverness and beyond stupidity. If you think, "I am clever, I am wealthy, I am important, I understand all about Buddhism." You cover up the truth of or no-self. All you will see is self, I, mine. But Buddhism is letting go of self. Voidness, Emptiness, Nibbāna.

Q: Are defilements such as greed or anger merely illusory or are they real?

A: They are both. The defilements we call lust or greed, or anger or delusion, these are just outward names, appearances. Just as we call a bowl large, small, pretty, or whatever. This is not reality. It is the concept we create from craving. If we want a big bowl, we call this one small. Craving causes us to discriminate. The truth, though, is merely what is. Look at it this way.. Are you a man? You can say 'yes'. This is the appearance of things. But really you are only a combination of elements or a group of changing aggregates. If the mind is free, it does not discriminate. No big and small, no you and me. There is nothing: Anattā, we say, or non-self. Really, in the end there is neither //atta// nor //anattā//.

Q: Could you explain a little more about karma?

A: Karma is action.. Karma is clinging. Body, speech, and mind all make karma when we cling. We make habits. These can make us suffer in the future. This is the fruit of our clinging, of our past defilement. All attachment leads to making karma. Suppose you were a thief before you became a monk. You stole, made others unhappy, made your parents unhappy. Now you are a monk, but when you remember how you made others unhappy, you feel bad and suffer yourself even today. Remember, not only body, but speech and mental action can make conditions for future results. If you did some act of kindness in the past and remember it today, you will be happy. This happy state of mind is the result of past karma. All things are conditioned by cause — both long term and, when examined, moment to moment. But you need not bother to think about past, or present, or future. Merely watch the body and mind. You must figure karma out for yourself. Watch your mind. Practice and you will see clearly. Make sure, however, that you leave the karma of others to them. Don't cling to and don't watch others. If I take poison, I suffer. No need for you to share it with me! Take what is good that your teacher offers. Then you can become peaceful, your mind will become like that of your teacher. If you will examine it, you will see. Even if now you don't understand, when you practice, it will become clear. You will know by yourself. This is called practicing the Dhamma.

When we were young, our parents used to discipline us and get angry. Really they wanted to help us. You must see it over the long term. Parents and teachers criticize us and we get upset. Later on we can see why. After long practice you will know. Those who are too clever leave after a short time. They never learn. You must get rid of your cleverness. If you think yourself better than others, you will only suffer. What a pity. No need to get upset. Just watch.

Q: Sometimes it seems that since becoming a monk I have increased my hardships and suffering.

A: I know that some of you have had a background of material comfort and outward freedom. By comparison, now you live an austere existence. Then in the practice, I often make you sit and wait for long hours. Food and climate are different from your home. But everyone must go through some of this. This is the suffering that leads to the end of suffering. This is how you learn. When you get angry and feel sorry for yourself, it is a great opportunity to understand the mind. The Buddha called defilements our teachers.

All my disciples are like my children. I have only loving kindness and their welfare in mind. If I appear to make you suffer, it is for your own good. I know some of you are well-educated and very knowledgeable. People with little education and worldly knowledge can practice easily. But it is as if you Westerners have a very large house to clean. When you have cleaned the house, you will have a big living space. You can use the kitchen, the library, the living room. You must be patient. Patience and endurance are essential to our practice. When I was a young monk I did not have it as hard as you. I knew the language and was eating my native food. Even so, some days I despaired. I wanted to disrobe or even commit suicide. This kind of suffering comes from wrong views. When you have seen the truth, though, you are free from views and opinions. Everything becomes peaceful.

Q: I have been developing very peaceful states of mind from meditation. What should I do now?

A: This is good. Make the mind peaceful, concentrated. Use this concentration to examine the mind and body. When the mind is not peaceful, you should also watch. Then you will know true peace. Why? Because you will see impermanence. Even peace must be seen as impermanent. If you are attached to peaceful states of mind, you will suffer when you do not have them. Give up everything, even peace.

Q: Did I hear you say that you are afraid of very diligent disciples?

A: Yes, that's right. I am afraid. I am afraid that they are too serious. They try too hard, but without wisdom. They push themselves into unnecessary suffering. Some of you are determined to become enlightened. You grit your teeth and struggle all the time. This is trying too hard. People are all the same. They don't know the nature of things (sankhāra). All formations, mind and body, are impermanent. Simply watch and don't cling.

Others think they know. They criticize, they watch, they judge. That's OK. Leave their opinions to them. This discrimination is dangerous. It is like a road with a very sharp curve. If we think others are worse or better or the same s us, we go off the curve. If we discriminate, we will only suffer.

Q: I have been meditating many years now. My mind is open and peaceful in almost all circumstances. Now I would like to try to backtrack and practice high states of concentration or mind absorption.

A: This is fine. It is beneficial mental exercise. If you have wisdom, you will not get hung up on concentrated states of mind. It is the same as wanting to sit for long periods. This is fine for training, but really, practice is separate from any posture. It is a matter of directly looking at the mind. This is wisdom. When you have examined and understood the mind, then you have the wisdom to know the limitations of concentration, or of books. If you have practiced and understood not-clinging, you can then return to the books. They will be like a sweet dessert. They can help you to teach others. Or you can go back to practice absorption You have the wisdom to know not to hold on to anything.

Q: Would you review some of the main points of our discussion?

A: You must examine yourself. Know who you are. Know your body and mind by simply watching. In sitting, in sleeping, in eating, know your limits. Use wisdom. The practice is not to try to achieve anything. Just be mindful of what is. Our whole meditation is looking directly at the mind. You will see suffering, its cause and its end. But you must have patience; much patience and endurance. Gradually you will learn. The Buddha taught his disciples to stay with their teachers for at least five years. You must learn the values of giving, of patience and of devotion.

Don't practice too strictly. Don't get caught up with outward form. Watching others is bad practice. Simply be natural an watch that. Our monks' discipline and monastic rules are very important. They create a simple and harmonious environment. Use them well. But remember, the essence of the monks' discipline is watching intention, examining the mind. You must have wisdom. Don't discriminate. Would you get upset at a small tree in the forest for not being tall and straight like some of the others? This is silly. Don't judge other people. There are all varieties. No need to carry the burden of wishing to change them all.

So, be patient. Practice morality. Live simply and be natural. Watch the mind. This is our practice. It will lead you to unselfishness. To peace.

* * * * *

The Venerable Ajahn Chah was one of the most influential monks of Thai Buddhism. He earned fame by his skill at training monks in high standards of Dhamma-Vinaya and in establishing a strong monastic Sangha in the West. Ajahn Chah died at Wat Pah Pong on January 16, 1992 at the age of 73.

"Questions and Answers with Ajahn Chah" is excerpted from Bodhinyāna: Teachings of Ven. Ajahn Chah. Third edition. (Thailand: Wat Pah Pong, 1982). Our grateful appreciation to Ven.Punnadhamma and the Sangha of Wat Pah Nanchat for granting permission to DharmaNet International to publish electronic editions of Bodhinyāna and other texts by Ajahn Chah. The electronic edition of Bodhinyāna is expected to be released in May of 1994; other volumes will follow.

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13-20 SESSHIN - Taizan Maezumi. Zen Center of Los Angeles, 923 South Normandie Ave, Los Angeles CA 90006. (213) 387-2351. FAX: (213) 387-2377

18-21 INSIGHT MEDITATION RETREAT - Steven Armstrong. Alternate periods of sitting and walking in the tradition of U Pandita. Graduated daily meditation instruction, teacher interviews and discourses to provide the theoretical understanding for deepening insight. Northwest Dharma Association, 311 W. McGraw, Seattle WA 98119 (206) 286-9060

18-23 SCHOOL SPRING BREAK SESSHIN - Robert Aitken. Palolo Zen Center, 2747 Waiomao Road, Honolulu HI 96816. (808) 735-1347.

19-26 INNER WORK FOR SOCIAL ACTION AND SERVICE - Ken Jones. Gaia House, Woodland Rd, Denbury, nr Newton Abbot, Devon TQ12 6DY, England. Tel: Ipplepen (0803) 813188

19-26 MEDITATION RETREAT - Sister Ayya Khema. Perth Buddhist Society, Bianca di Bua, 580 Glen Rd, Darlington, WA 6070, Australia

25-27 DEPENDENT ORIGINATION & MEDITATION - Ven. Ajahn Sucitto. Insight Meditation Society, Pleasant St, Barre MA 01005. (508) 355-4378

25-27 PERILS AND PROMISES ON THE SPIRITUAL PATH - Jack Kornfield. Mount Madonna Center, 445 Summit Rd., Watsonville CA 95076. (408) 847-0406

25-27 INTRODUCTORY ZEN RETREAT. Corbett OR. Contact: Dharma Rain Zen Center, 2539 SE Madison, Portland OR. (503) 239-4846

25-27 CHANGE, COMPASSION AND FAITH - Ken McLeod. Los Angeles CA. Contact: Unfettered Mind, (310) 397-1656

25-27 MINDFULNESS RETREAT - Christopher Reed (True Jewel). Juneau, AK. Contact: (907) 463-5019.

25-4/3 VIPASSANA RETREAT - Larry Rosenberg & Narayan Liebenson-Grady. Insight Meditation Society, Pleasant St, Barre MA 01005. (508) 355-4378

26-27 TARA TEACHINGS - Jetsun Kusho Chimey Luding. IMPORTANT! Please call ahead for parking instructions. Portland Dharma Center, 2514 SE Madison, Portland OR. Contact: Ani Paldron, (503) 224-3307.

26-29 DENKOE SESSHIN. Corbett OR. Contact: Dharma Rain Zen Center, 2539 SE Madison, Portland OR. (503) 239-4846

27-4/3 KEEPING OF THE TEN PRECEPTS RETREAT. Shasta Abbey, PO Box 199, Mt. Shasta CA 96067 (916) 926-4208

31-4/4 RESIDENTIAL RETREAT - Ajahn Tiradhammo. Contact: Buddhistisches Kloster, Am Waldrand, CH-3718, Kandersteg, Be, Switzerland.

APRIL

1-30 DATHUN (Month-long shamatha/vipasyana retreat). Rocky Mountain Dharma Center, Red Feather Lakes CO 80545. (303) 881- 2184. FAX: (303) 881-2186

2-9 EXPANDING THE HEART - Christopher Titmuss & Yvonne Weier. Gaia House, Woodland Rd, Denbury, nr Newton Abbot, Devon TQ12 6DY, England. Tel: Ipplepen (0803) 813188

2-12 LOMI-VIPASSANA RESIDENTIAL RETREAT - Jack Kornfield, James Baraz, Carol Wilson, Gil Fronsdal, Mary Orr. Yucca Valley CA. Contact: Carol Lazell, 25 Pinewood Lane, Novato CA 94947. (415) 897-7504

4-5/2 SACRED ARTS RETREAT - Lama Tharchin Rinpoche. Vajrayana Foundation, 531 Corralitos Rd, Ste 108, Corralitos CA 95076. (408) 761-6266

7-10 BUDDHIST WITNESS AT THE NEVADA NUCLEAR TEST SITE. Contact: Buddhist Peace Fellowship, PO Box 4650, Berkeley CA 94704. (510) 525-8596. FAX: (510) 525-7973

8-15 SESSHIN - Robert Aitken. Palolo Zen Center, 2747 Waiomao Road, Honolulu HI 96816. (808) 735-1347.

8-15 MINDFULNESS RETREAT - Eileen Kiera (True Lamp). Camp Indianola, WA. Contact: Kris Larson, (206) 323-5194.

9 WOMEN IN MEDITATION - Anna Douglas. Spirit Rock Center, Box 909, Woodacre CA 94973. (415) 488-0164

9 TOOLS FOR DAILY LIVING: AWARENESS MEDITATION & YOGA - Jacqueline Mandell and Simon Menasche. Portland OR. Contact: (503) 246-0272 or 239-0858.

9-10 THE SUFFERING SELF: A 2-DAY DIALOGUE BETWEEN PSYCHOANALYSTS AND BUDDHISTS — Robert Thurman, Mark Epstein, Joseph Goldstein, John Daido Loori, and many others.

Contact: Ivy Vale-Wynand, Program Coordinator, c/0 MITPP, 130 West 97 St, New York, NY 10025. (212) 340-1256. Fax: (212) 932-2103

9-16 WOMEN'S COURSE - Christina Feldman and Narayan Liebenson-Grady. Insight Meditation Society, Pleasant St, Barre MA 01005. (508) 355-4378

12-23 OLD STUDENTS RESIDENTIAL RETREAT - Jack Kornfield, James Baraz, Carol Wilson, Anna Douglas. Yucca Valley CA. Contact: Carol Lazell, 25 Pinewood Lane, Novato CA 94947. (415) 897-7504

15-17 ABOUT ACCEPTING ONESELF - Vimalo Kulbarz. Gaia House, Woodland Rd, Denbury, nr Newton Abbot, Devon TQ12 6DY, England. Tel: Ipplepen (0803) 813188

16-17 NON-RESIDENTIAL WEEKEND - Joseph Goldstein & Sharon Salzberg. New York Open Center, 83 Spring Street, New York, NY 10012. (212) 219-2527

19-24 MINDFULNESS RETREAT - Arnie Kotler (True Realization). Contact: Open Way Sangha, PO Box 7281, Missoula MT 59807. (406) 549-6214

22-24 BEGINNER'S MIND SESSHIN. Zen Mountain Center, PO Box 43, Mountain Center CA 92561. (909) 659-5272

22-24 INSIGHT MEDITATION RETREAT - Rodney Smith. Northwest Dharma Association, 311 W. McGraw, Seattle WA 98119. (206) 286-9060

23-24 MINDFULNESS RETREAT - Sister Chan Khong (True Emptiness) Paris, France. Contact: Monique Thoenig, (46) 02-26-93

23-30 THE HEART OF BUDDHIST MEDITATION - Martine & Stephen Batchelor. Gaia House, Woodland Rd, Denbury, nr Newton Abbot, Devon TQ12 6DY, England. Tel: Ipplepen (0803) 813188

22-25 GAY MEN'S RESIDENTIAL RETREAT - Robert Hall and Eric Kolvig. Santa Cruz. Contact: Ron Pilato, 3880 21st St, San Francisco CA 94114. (415) 550-8212

22-29 INSIGHT MEDITATION AND INQUIRY - Christopher Titmuss, Sharda Rogell and Jose Reissig.

Insight Meditation Society, Pleasant St, Barre MA 01005. (508) 355- 4378

22-29, 29-5/8 VIPASSANA RETREAT - Michelle McDonald, Steven Smith, and Kamala Masters. Palolo Zen Center. Contact: Yuklin Aluli, 415C Uluniu St, Kailua HI 96734. (808) 262-5900.

23 TOOLS FOR DAILY LIVING: AWARENESS MEDITATION & YOGA - Jacqueline Mandell and Simon Menasche. Portland OR. Contact: (503) 246-0272 or 239-0858.

23-5/7 WOMEN'S RETREAT - Ruth Denison. Dhamma Dena, HC-1, Box 250, Joshua Tree CA 92252. (619) 362-4815.

27-30 MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND VIPASSANA RETREAT - Julie Wester. Northwest Dharma Association, 311 W. McGraw, Seattle WA 98119. (206) 286-9060

27-5/24 DATHUN RETREAT. Karme-Choling, Barnet VT 05821. (802) 633-2384

28-5/1 MINDFULNESS RETREAT - Eileen Kiera (True Lamp). Moscow, ID. Contact: Nancy Ging, 118 East Third St, Moscow ID 83843. (208) 883-1037

29-5/8 TRUE NATURE: BUDDHISM, ECOPSYCHOLOGY & THE INDIGENOUS MIND - Joan Halifax and Larry Littlebird. Upaya, 1404 Cerro Gordo, Santa Fe NM 87501. (505) 986-8518.

30 A DAY WITH STEPHEN MITCHELL. Meditation, readings from the many spiritual classics he has

translated, questions and discussion. Spirit Rock Center, Box 909, Woodacre CA 94973. (415) 488-0164

30-5/4 MINDFULNESS RETREAT - Sister Annabel Laity (True Virtue). South Scotland. Contact: Martin Pitt, Community of Interbeing, 42 Hangingroyd Road, Hebden Bridge, West Yorks HX7 6A, England. (44) 422-842804

30-5/7 VIPASSANA RETREAT - Mary Orr. Missoula MT. Contact: Naomi Lev, 336 South 5th St, Missoula MT 59801. (406) 721-3687.

MAY

4-8 MINDFULNESS RETREAT - Thich Nhat Hanh. Near Zurich. Contact: Marcel Geisser, Haus Tao, CH-9427 Wolfhalden, Switzerland. (071) 44-35-39

6-8 ZEN AND QI GONG - Taizan Maezumi and MM Van Benschoten. Zen Mountain Center, PO Box 43, Mountain Center CA 92561. (909) 659-5272

6-8, 9-15 VIPASSANA RETREAT - Vimalo Kulbarz and Erik Knud-Hansen. Insight Meditation Society, Pleasant St, Barre MA 01005. (508) 355-4378

6-14 WOMEN IN MEDITATION - Christina Feldman and Anna Douglas. Santa Rosa. Contact: Julie Martin, 217 Los Angeles, San Anselmo CA 94960. (415) 721-7149

7 TOOLS FOR DAILY LIVING: AWARENESS MEDITATION & YOGA - Jacqueline Mandell and Simon Menasche. Portland OR. Contact: (503) 246-0272 or 239-0858.

7-8 MINDFULNESS RETREAT - Arnie Kotler and Therese Fitzgerald. Contact: David Briscoe, 720 Bird Street, Oroville CA 95965. (916) 532-0824

7-11 THE TAKING OF RISKS - Christopher Titmuss. Gaia House, Woodland Rd, Denbury, nr Newton Abbot, Devon TQ12 6DY, England. Tel: Ipplepen (0803) 813188

13-15 EMBRACING PEACE - Eddie and Debbie Shapiro. Gaia House, Woodland Rd, Denbury, nr Newton Abbot, Devon TQ12 6DY, England. Tel: Ipplepen (0803) 813188

13-15 BUDDHISM AND DEEP ECOLOGY - Christopher Reed (True Jewel). Big Sur, CA. Contact: (408) 667-3005.

16-22 7-DAY SAMATHA/VIPASSANA INTENSIVE - Ayya Khema.

23-6/9 18-DAY RETREAT (Experienced Meditators) - Ayya Khema.

Soquel CA. Contact: Toni Stevens, PO Box 1087, Felton CA 95018. (408) 335-3733.

16-23 MINDFULNESS RETREAT - Sister Annabel Laity (True Virtue). Near Toronto. Contact: Toronto Sangha, 205 Monarch Park Ave, Toronto, Ontario M4J 4R9, Canada. (514) 345-8038.

20-24 VIPASSANA RETREAT - Anna Douglas. Winona MN. Contact: Betty Kuhn, (612) 770-9165

20-29 METTA RETREAT - Steven Smith, Michelle McDonald-Smith and Kamala Masters. Insight Meditation Society, Pleasant St, Barre MA 01005. (508) 355-4378

21-24 THE TRUTH IN DAILY LIFE - Christopher Titmuss. Gaia House, Woodland Rd, Denbury, nr Newton Abbot, Devon TQ12 6DY, England. Tel: Ipplepen (0803) 813188

25 BUDDHA'S BIRTH, ENLIGHTENMENT & PARANIRVANA CELEBRATION.

27-29 VIPASSANA WEEKEND RETREAT - James Baraz. Vancouver BC. Contact: (604) 222-4941

27-29 MINDFULNESS RETREAT - Sister Annabel Laity (True Virtue). Near Montreal. Contact: Maple Village, M. Claude Do Coa, 590 de Provence, Longueuil, P.Q. J4H-3R2 Canada. (514) 591-8726.

27-30 MEDITATION AND THE ART OF WORKING - Martine Batchelor. Gaia House, Woodland Rd, Denbury, nr Newton Abbot, Devon TQ12 6DY, England. Tel: Ipplepen (0803) 813188

27-6/4 RESIDENTIAL RETREAT - Fred von Allmen. Stockholm, Sweden. Contact: Tova Cederberg, Bandhag. SV 5A, S-11242 Enskeda.

28 MEDITATION AND INQUIRY - Howard Cohn. A day of sitting, walking, inquiry and discussion. Spirit Rock Center, Box 909, Woodacre CA 94973. (415) 488-0164

28-6/4 INTENSIVE 7-DAY CH'AN RETREAT - Master Sheng-yen. Ch'an Meditation Center, 90-56 Corona Ave, Elmhurst NY 11373. (718) 592-6593. FAX: (718) 592-0717

29-8/28 SUMMER ANGO (PEACEFUL DWELLING) RETREAT - Taizan Maezumi. Zen Mountain Center, PO Box 43, Mountain Center CA 92561. (909) 659-5272.

30-6/10 VIPASSANA RETREAT - Steven Smith, Michelle McDonald-Smith, Kamala Masters and Stephen Armstrong. Insight Meditation Society, Pleasant St, Barre MA 01005. (508) 355- 4378

{12} REVIEWS:

Buddhism After Patriarchy -- A Feminist History, Analysis and Reconstruction of Buddhism. By Rita Gross. State University of New York Press: Albany, 1993. 317 pages; notes and bibliography. Reviewed by Jacqueline Weltman.

The classic apocryphal story concerns the puzzled feminists who have just listened to a Buddhist speaker discussing how ego is the source of all human problems and how, by dismantling ego, we can achieve some freedom. They comment, `That sounds like a good religion — for men!' (Gross, p. 161)

Though there have been books on women in Buddhism coming out fairly regularly for the past ten years, most of them have been written by non-scholarly practitioners and focus on contemporary women teachers and women's practice. Some, like Tsultrim Allione's Women of Wisdom and various new translations of the Therīgāthā by Murcott, Waldman and others have reinterpreted classic but obscured texts by, and legends of, Buddhist nuns and yoginis. Scholarly books have appeared by Diana Paul and others: academic studies that analyze women's role in Buddhist history by studying and re-interpreting Mahayana texts that contain women as important symbols or central characters, "heroines" if you will.

Gross's study is the first I've seen that combines these methods by viewing Buddhist history within a contemporary Western feminist framework. From a scholarly viewpoint, the approach has its problems, but as challenging popular literature, the book stands to do mostly good.

After explaining her academic feminist ("women's studies") methodology and its relationship to Buddhist studies in the plodding first section, Gross begins the second section by defining Buddhist history in terms of a "usable past." Not all versions of the historical Buddhadharma are usable to women, she points out, because they are androcentric (though not necessarily "misogynist") in assumptions and cultural values — so much so that they ignore completely, misunderstand or misappropriate Buddhist women's experience. As a feminist, Gross suggests Buddhist women dig up a usable past — in other words, use and follow extant doctrinal versions that best respect women's experience and power as practitioners while discarding those that do the most harm. Androcentrism is not only unnecessary, says Gross, it is a violation of Buddhist ethics because it results in individual and collective suffering based on the supposedly "inherent" characteristic of femaleness. This, it hardly needs to be pointed out, is un-Buddhistic.

Gross insists it is possible to find the usable past because normative Buddhism, i.e.: the most precious, pure, necessary and liberating elements of Buddhist teaching, actually undermine cultural androcentrism and proclaim the exact equality of men and women in the doctrine of anattā, (egolessness or signlessness), which maintains the ultimate meaninglessness of fixed categories such as gender. Issues that have troubled feminists studying Buddhism — such as female rebirth being described as "unfortunate", the idea that a woman cannot become Buddha unless she first becomes male, or the "eight special rules" subordinating nuns to monks, are examined by Gross in light of women's historical and social conditions in the ancient and modern patriarchies of India, Southeast Asia, China, Tibet and Japan. The fact that women's lot is difficult, painful, and unconducive to or devoid of the time and learning necessary for higher spiritual pursuits is a patriarchal problem, she says, not a Buddhist one. The teachings themselves are based on the egolessness and mutual interdependence of all things — making sexism a virtually impossible position to maintain.

Gross continues the theoretical discussion in section three — "A Feminist Analysis of Key Concepts in Buddhism." Here, she finds similarities between contemporary feminist theoretical thought, which recognizes the arbitrary and authoritarian nature of gender role construction, and the traditional Buddhist idea of the emptiness of all conceptual thought. Gross, a Kagyupa Vajrayana practitioner, finds the most female-friendly Buddhist models in the Tantric yoga systems of Tibet in which female energy is valued, female Buddhas and Bodhisattvas symbolically present, and opportunities exist for women to combine serious practice with relationship in family life.

The latter part of the third section is perhaps the most important section of the book for us as practitioners. In it, Gross calls on the community to begin looking at its models of sangha now, to find

models of community life that work for both men and women equally, and to apply them. This cannot happen until there is, if you will, a paradigm shift. The cultural values of spiritual gain, merit, individual attainment, and spiritual athleticism need to be abandoned as counterproductive for real, functioning family and community in a Buddhist context. Sangha must accept its own feminine side in order not only to be whole, but to work, be functional, and — most importantly — to last. I quote:

... loneliness, and lack of community have reached dangerous levels, but are still tolerated and encouraged, a society in which violence and separation receive more support and approval than nurturance and relationship.... My suggested reconceptualization is simply to fill the profound ... category "sangha" with the feminist values of community, nurturance, communication, relationship and friendship. To emphasize these values is to recognize how critical they are, and always have been, as matrix and container for emulation of the Buddha and for meditative or philosophical pursuit of the dharma. (p. 265)

Overall, the flaws of Gross's book lie in her scholarship: the prose is heavy, uncomfortable, blocky, tortuous. Gross's analysis, through penetrating in places, can become simplistic. Plus, she doesn't seem sure for which audience she is writing: her academic colleagues, or the Buddhists out there in the proverbial trenches. Unfortunately, she does not provide a smooth read for either group. Nevertheless, the book is uplifting and important as the first of its genre — perhaps we could call it feminist Buddhist systematics.

* * * * *

JACQUELINE WELTMAN is a student of philosophy and religion at San Francisco State University and is the founder of dharma sisters, a Bay Area group for lesbians and bi-women practicing Buddhism. Contact: jaxers@well.sf.ca.us

{13} RESOURCES:

Subject: ANU SOCIAL SCIENCES INFORMATION SERVICES - Feb 1994

[Please direct all inquiries to: <coombspapers@coombs.anu.edu.au>]

The following range of information facilities is made available world- wide via INTERNET from the Coombs Computing Unit, Research Schools of Social Sciences & Pacific and Asian Studies (RSSS/RSPAS), Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia. All services are accessible free-of-charge 24hrs/day 7days/week:

================================

ANU SOCIAL SCIENCES WWW SERVER

================================

The World Wide Web (WWW) specialist social sciences server at the coombs.anu.edu.au machine was established on 25th Jan 1994 to act as the world's leading electronic social sciences & humanities information facility.

The ANU Social Sciences WWW Server provides a convenient access to all of the University's Social Sciences Info. Services (see below) and regularly keeps track of the WWW servers world-wide offering information of relevance to research in the field of social sciences and humanities.

ACCESS:

http to //coombs.anu.edu.au/CoombsHome.html

========================================================

COOMBSPAPERS - SOCIAL SCIENCES RESEARCH DATA BANK	AT ANU

========================================================

The anonymous FTP archive on coombs.anu.edu.au machine was established on the 3rd Dec 1991.

In Feb 94 the Coombspapers Data Bank comprised over 1000 ASCII files totalling over 34 Mb of data organized into two large subdirectories:

-	Coombsarchives - research documents and materials created at the RSSS/RSPAS, ANU

-	Otherarchives - research documents and materials (incl. Electronic Buddhist Archives and Tibetan Archives) originating from elsewhere

In Feb 94 materials in these directories and subdirectories were mirrored (on daily or weekly basis) by 6 systems [3 in USA, 1 in Canada, 1 in UK, 1 in Taiwan): UCENG.UC.EDU; WUARCHIVE.WUSTL.EDU; FTP.UU.NET; KNOT.QUEENSU.CA; UNIX.HENSA.AC.UK and NCTUCCCA.EDU.TW

The Coombspapers have also numerous direct gopher links made to it from university sites all over the world.

Details of current holdings [updated weekly] of the Coombspapers Archives are available on-line from the "ANU-Coombspapers-Index.src" WAIS database.

ACCESS:

ftp to coombs.anu.edu.au

gopher to coombs.anu.edu.au, port 70

gopher to cheops.anu.edu.au, port 70

http to //coombs.anu.edu.au/CoombsHome.html

==================

COOMBS LISTSERVS

==================

Since Jul 93 several specialist e-mail forums (electronic discussion groups) have been running on majordomo@coombs.anu.edu.au. In Feb 94 these included:

ANCIENT-DNA-L	(= Prehistory & Molecular Biology)

APHIL-L	(= Australasian Philosophy)

AUSTRALIA-NZ-HISTORY-L	(= Australian & NZ History)

COOMBSEMINARS	(= ANU seminars' announcement system)

DEMOGRAPHIC-LIST	(= Demography & Population Studies)

ENDANGERED-LANGUAGES-L	(= Linguistics & Anthropology)

PHILIPPINESTUDIES-L	(= Philippine Studies)

TAOISM-L	(= Taoism Studies)

ZENBUDDHISM-L	(= Zen & Ch'an Buddhism Studies)

ACCESS:

via E-mail.

SUBSCRIPTION:

Send E-mail 'subscribe [forum-name] your-name your-email' message to:

majordomo@coombs.anu.edu.au

====================================

ANU-XXX-XXX SERIES OF WAIS DBASES

====================================

Since May 1992 several tens of the full-text WAIS (Wide Area Information Servers) data-bases have been constructed on the basis of the materials deposited with the Coombspapers anon ftp Archives.

In Feb 94 these dbases (all running on coombs.anu.edu.au machine) included:

"ANU-Aboriginal-EconPolicies.src"

"ANU-Aboriginal-Studies.src"

"ANU-Ancient-DNA-L.src"

"ANU-Ancient-DNA-Studies.src"

"ANU-Asian-Computing.src"

"ANU-Asian-Religions.src"

"ANU-AustPhilosophyForum-L.src"

"ANU-Australia-NZ-History-L.src"

"ANU-Australian-Economics.src"

"ANU-Buddhist-Electrn-Rsrces.src"

"ANU-CAUT-Academics.src"

"ANU-CAUT-Projects.src"

"ANU-CanbAnthropology-Index.src"

"ANU-Cheng-Tao-Ko-Verses.src"

"ANU-Coomb.seminars-Listserv.src"

"ANU-Coombspapers-Index.src"

"ANU-Demography-Papers.src"

"ANU-Dhammapada-Verses.src"

"ANU-French-Databanks.src"

"ANU-Internet-Voyager-Guide.src"

"ANU-Local-Waiservers-Index.src"

"ANU-Pacific-Archaeology.src"

"ANU-Pacific-Linguistics.src"

"ANU-Pacific-Manuscripts.src"

"ANU-Pacific-Relations.src"

"ANU-Pacific-Studies.src"

"ANU-Philippine-Studies.src"

"ANU-Philippine-Studies-L.src"

"ANU-Radiocarbon-Abstracts.src"

"ANU-SSDA-Australian-Census.src"

"ANU-SSDA-Australian-Opinion.src"

"ANU-SSDA-Australian-Studies.src"

"ANU-Shamanism-Studies.src"

"ANU-SocSci-Netlore.src"

"ANU-Strategic-Studies.src"

"ANU-Taoism-Listserv.src"

"ANU-Thai-Yunnan.src"

"ANU-Theses-Abstracts.src"

"ANU-Tibetan-ACIP-Catalog.src"

"ANU-Tibetan-Electrn-Rsrces.src"

"ANU-Tropical-Archaeobotany.src"

"ANU-ZenBuddhism-Calendar.src"

"ANU-ZenBuddhism-Listserv.src"

ACCESS:

via standard WAIS client software

gopher to coombs.anu.edu.au, port 70

gopher to cheops.anu.edu.au, port 70

http to //coombs.anu.edu.au/CoombsHome.html

===========================================================================

COOMBSQUEST - SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES	INFORMATION FACILITY AT ANU

===========================================================================

The "Coombsquest" gopher was established on 28 April 1993 to act as the world's leading electronic social sciences & humanities information facility.

Besides providing a convenient access to the Coombspapers anon.FTP archive the Coombsquest gopher offers:

-	Direct link to the ANU Library's ELISA gopher (info.anu.edu.au)

-	Direct access to all ANU-xxx-xxx series of WAIS format databases

-	Online searching of other major social sciences international databases

-	Direct access to selected info.resources, directories and network guides

-	Comprehensive register of the Leading soc.sci.& humanities inf.facilities world-wide

-	Direct access to the seven gopher-based specialist study areas:

1.	Aboriginal Studies Facility;

2.	Asian Studies Facility;

3.	Buddhist Studies Facility;

4.	Demography Studies Facility;

5.	History Studies Facility;

6.	Linguistics Studies Facility;

7.	Prehistory & Archaeology Studies Facility

ACCESS:

gopher to coombs.anu.edu.au, port 70

gopher to cheops.anu.edu.au, port 70

http to //coombs.anu.edu.au/CoombsHome.html

-----------------------

Canberra, 14 February 1994

ANU Social Sciences Information Services Administrator Dr T.Matthew Ciolek <tmciolek@coombs.anu.edu.au>

====================================================

ANU-Asian-Computing

Version 1.1 June 1993

Version 1.0 April 1993

A loose and continuously growing collection of research information, archives, publications, software, fonts, suppliers addresses, notes, solutions and practical hints pertaining to the effective use of Asian and other non-Latin scripts and fonts in the academic computing and text-processing.

Dbase editors: Dr T. Matthew Ciolek & Helen Walker Please direct all subject matter correspondence to:

asian.comput@coombs.anu.edu.au

KEYWORDS:

Arabic, Asia, Asian history & languages, Burma, Burmese, China, Chinese Computing Network <CCNET-L@uga.cc.uga.edu>, Cyrillic, DOS, Hangul, India, Indian, Islamic computing, Japan, Japanese, Kana, Kanji, Korea, Korean, Lao, Laos, Macintosh, Mongolia, Mongolian, PC, Russia, Russian, Sanscrit, Slavic, Slavonic, Taiwan, Thai, Thailand, Tibet, Tibetan, anthropology, conversion tables, desktop publishing, fonts, linguistic, linguistics, mainframe, multilingual wordprocessing, oriental writing systems, scripts, special characters, symbols.

====================================================

ANU-Asian-Religions

Version 2.1 September 1993

Version 2.0 March 1993

Version 1.0 June 1992

Bibliographic references to the selected (mainly Buddhist) Asian religions. The data used for construction of this server were supplied by:

Dr T. Matthew Ciolek, Austr. Nat'l Univ. - Zen Buddhism & recent French publications

Mr Barry Howarth, Austr. Nat'l Univ. - Taoism

Dr John MacRae, Cornell Univ., USA - Chinese Buddhism

Dr Geoffrey Samuel, Newcastle Univ. - Tibetan Buddh.

Lama Choedak T. Yuthok, Canberra - Tibetan Buddhism

Dbase editor: Dr T. Matthew Ciolek tmciolek@coombs.anu.edu.au

KEYWORDS:

Bouddhisme, Buddhism, Central Asia, Ch'an Buddhism, Chamanisme, Chine, China, Chinese philosophy, Christian, Christianisme, Confucianism, Confucianisme, Dalai Lama, Dao, Hassidic, Hassidism, Hassidisme, Himalaya, Hindouisme, Hinduism, Inde, India, Islam, Japan, Judaisme et psychanalyse, Kabbale, Korea, Lao Tse, Lao Tzu, Livres sacres, Mahayana, Martial arts, Mongolia, Mt. Taishan, Nepal, Pratiques magiques, Siam, Siberia, Silk route, Soufisme, Sufi, Sufism, Tao, Tao Teh Ching, Taoisme, Thailand, Thailande, Tibet, Tibetan, Vedisme, Yoga (bouddhisme tantrique), Zen, anthropology, arts martiaux, bibliography, chretienne, daoism, dieux des montagnes, enlightenment, esoterisme, ethnology, history of the Sakya sect, hunters and gatherers, hymnes tibetains,immortality, islamic, islamique, les textes du canon, linguistics, magic, magie, manuscripts, medecine et psychologie, medicine, meditation, monasteries, mudra, mysticism, mystique, orientale, paramitas, parapsychologie, political thought, primitive religions, psychiatrie, refuges, religion, sutras, taoism, taoist yoga, zazen.

====================================================

ANU-Buddhist-Electrn-Rsrces

Version 1.0 November 1993

BUDDHIST ELECTRONIC RESOURCES DIRECTORY (B.E.R.D)

Compiled by: Dr T. Matthew Ciolek <tmciolek@coombs.anu.edu.au>, Coombs Computing Unit, RSSS/RSPacS, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200.

This is a world-wide directory of the computer network addresses of research facilities, archives, research centers, on-line databases and resources of interest to the serious scholars and students of Buddhism, especially Zen Buddhism.

The Directory is meant to be shared between the Zen and other Buddhist centers/institutions all over the world in order to facilitate communication between such organizations in all countries of Asia, Europe, N. America, S. America and Oceania.

Readers are invited to email the compiler any additions or corrections to this dbase.

These records are also available via the Coombsquest Gopher and/or anonymous ftp in a "buddh-electr-rsrc-dir-berd.txt" file from the Coombspapers Soc. Sci. Data Bank at coombs.anu.edu.au

Dbase editor: Dr T. Matthew Ciolek tmciolek@coombs.anu.edu.au

KEYWORDS:

Asian religions, BBS, Buddha-L, Buddhism, Buddhist Studies Facilities, Coombspapers Social Sciences Research Data Bank, DharmaNet, Electronic Buddhist Archives, Internet, Tibetan Buddhism, Western Buddhism, Zen, ZenBuddhism-L, anonymous ftp archives, bulletin boards, WAIS databases, e-journals, e-texts, etexts, electronic journals, gophers, listserves, networked, networking, primary and sacred texts, sutras, teishos

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ANU-Cheng-Tao-Ko-Verses

Version 1.0 November 1993

CHENG-TAO-KO [Zhengdaoge], Shodoka (J.), Song of Enlightenment.

A collection of 64 verses from the T'ang Dynasty China, attributed to the Zen Master Yung-chia Hsuan-chueh [Yongjia Xuanjue], aka Yoka Genkaku (J.) (665-713), and presenting the basic tenets of the Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism.

CHENG-TAO-KO [Zhengdaoge] (C.); (J. Shodoka (J.); Song of Enlightenment, Song of Immediate Satori, Song of Realization, Song of the Realization of the Way, Odes on Enlightenment is a Zen Buddhist didactical poem whose authorship is traditionally attributed to Yung- chia Hsuan-chueh [Yongjia Xuanjue] - one of the most gifted teachers of the Ch'an (Zen) school during the T'ang Dynasty China.

Yung-chia Hsuan-chueh [also known under the names of Yung-chia Hsuan- chio, Great Master Chen-chio, Yoka Genkaku (J.), Yoka Daishi (J.)] was a scholar and a monk who lived in the years 665-713. He was a Dharma heir of the 6th Zen Patriarch, Hui-neng (J. Eno) and Dharma brother to such personalities as Ch'ing-yuan Hsing-ssu (J. Seigen Gyoshi), Nan- yueh Huai-jang (J. Nangaku Ejo), Nan-yang Hui-chung (J. Nan'yo Echu) and Ho-tse Shen-hui (J. Kataku Jinne).

This wais database utilises a translation from Japanese prepared in the 1960s by R.Aitken and E.Shimano for the Diamond Sangha Zen Buddhist Society, Koko An, 2119 Kaloa Way, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA 96822.

Dbase editor: Dr T. Matthew Ciolek <tmciolek@coombs.anu.edu.au>

KEYWORDS:

Asia, Asian, Buddhism, Buddhist, Son, Zen, poetry, religion, religious, sacred texts, scriptures, sutras, sutra,

ACCESS TO THE DBASE:

via the standard WAIS software and through the COOMBSQUEST gopher (coombs.anu.edu.au and cheops.anu.edu.au)

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ANU-Coombspapers-Index

Version 1.1 June 1993

Version 1.0 May 1993

The annotated index to the Coombspapers Social Sciences Research Data Bank built at the Australian National University. This index is updated at regular intervals, roughly once a fortnight.

Dbase editor: Dr T. Matthew Ciolek tmciolek@coombs.anu.edu.au

KEYWORDS:

social sciences, humanities, the arts, religion, network information for social scientists, anonymous ftp archives, AARNet, Australia,

Within the COOMBSPAPERS anonymous ftp facility on coombs.anu.edu.au, which forms a part of the gopher-based COOMBSQUEST Social Sciences and Humanities Information Facility at ANU, there are, among other documents, materials contributed by the following departments and units of the RSSS/RSPacS:

Aboriginal History Journal, Anthropology, Asian History, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Cartography Unit, Contemporary China Centre, Coombs Computing Unit, Demography, Economic History, Economic Policy Research Centre, Economics RSSS, Federalism Research Centre, International Relations, Indonesia Project of the Economics, RSPacS Linguistics, Modern Economic History of Southeast Asia Project, National Centre for Development Studies, Pacific Manuscripts Bureau, Peace Research Centre, Philosophy, Political Science, Political and Social Change, Prehistory, RSPacS Director's Unit, RSSS Director's Unit, Social Science Data Archives, Sociology, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Thai-Yunnan Project, Urban Research Project.

The Coombspapers also collect materials from the following areas: Australia's Committee for the Advancement of University Teaching (CAUT) materials; Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (ASEDA) data; CIPSH-UNESCO Endangered Languages Project; Electronic Buddhist Archives (Theravada, Tibetan, Zen as well other Asian religions materials); Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA) documents.

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ANU-Dhammapada-Verses

Version 1.0 November 1993

The Dhammapada is an anthology of verses, belonging to the part of the Theravada Pali Canon of scriptures known as the Khuddaka Nikaya, and consists of 423 verses.

English translation from the Pal, completed in 1993, is by John Richards <jhr@elidor.demon.co.uk>

Something like a quarter of the verses are to be found in other parts of the Pali Tipitaka, particularly in the other verse parts of the Khuddaka Nikaya such as the Sutta Nipata and the Thera- and Theri- gatha.

The Dhammapada is probably the most popular book of the Pali Canon, with the possible exception of the Satipatthana Sutta, or the Sutta on the Turning of the Wheel of the Law (Dhamma-cakka-ppavattana Sutta). It is certainly the most frequently translated portion.

Like most anthologies of verses, the Dhammapada is very uneven. Some verses are both profound and deeply poetic. Others are awkward, and little more than a list of technical terms. The overall effect of the Dhammapada however is undoubtedly of high moral and spiritual earnestness, and a typically Buddhist gentle persuasiveness. It would be hard to point to a poetic book of a similar length in world religious literature of a correspondingly sustained level.

[The complete text of the translation can be acquired from the Electronic Buddhist Archives in a sub-directory coombspapers/otherarchives via anonymous FTP and/or COOMBSQUEST gopher on the node COOMBS.ANU.EDU.AU]

Dbase editor: Dr T. Matthew Ciolek <tmciolek@coombs.anu.edu.au>

KEYWORDS:

Asia, Asian, Buddhism, Buddhist, Hinayana, Theravada, Theravadin, Tripitaka, moral and ethical guidelines, poetry, religion, religious, sacred texts, sutras, sutra

ACCESS TO THE DBASE:

via the standard WAIS software and through the COOMBSQUEST gopher (coombs.anu.edu.au and cheops.anu.edu.au)

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ANU-Internet-Voyager-Guide

Version 1.0 November 1993

INTERNET VOYAGER: SOCIAL SCIENTIST'S GUIDEBOOK to AARNET/INTERNET Online Information Services [This guidebook was last updated on 20 Jul 93]

Services described here have been accessed, verified and evaluated by: Dr T.Matthew Ciolek, Coombs Computing Unit, RSPacS/RSSS, Australian National University, Canberra, e-mail <tmciolek@coombs.anu.edu.au>. The date of last successful access is specified for each online service.

NOTE: The Guidebook in the form of internet-voyager-1-2.txt & internet-voyager-2-2.txt documents has now ceased to be updated. Its role is now taken over by the gopher-based COOMBSQUEST Soc. Sci and Humanities Information Facility running on the coombs.anu.edu.au and on the cheops.anu.edu.au machines.

Dbase editor: Dr T. Matthew Ciolek <tmciolek@coombs.anu.edu.au>

KEYWORDS:

Coombspapers Social Sciences Research Data Bank at ANU, Coombsquest Information Facility at ANU, Electronic Buddhist Archives, Internet, WAIS databases, anonymous ftp archives, bulletin boards, e-journals, e-texts, electronic journals, etexts, gophers, humanities, listserves, networked, networking, on-line resources register, registers, social science, telnet, the arts

ACCESS TO THE DBASE: via the standard WAIS software and through the COOMBSQUEST gopher (coombs.anu.edu.au and cheops.anu.edu.au)

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ANU-Shamanism-Studies

Version 1.0 September 1993

BIBLIOGRAPHY ON SHAMANISM

by Dr Geoffrey Samuel Department of Sociology and Anthropology

University of Newcastle, NSW 2308, Australia.

Email: sogbs@cc.newcastle.edu.au

Dbase editor: Dr T. Matthew Ciolek tmciolek@coombs.anu.edu.au

KEYWORDS:

Africa, America, American Indians, Blacks, Bon Buddhism, Chamanisme, China, Chine, Eskimo, Himalaya, Hindouisme, Hinduism, Inde, India, Indians, Islam, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Nepal, New Age, Pratiques magiques, Siam, Siberia, Thailand, Thailande Tibet, Tibetan, Vajrajana, Vedisme, Yoga, aboriginal religions, anthropology, arts martiaux, bibliography, bouddhisme tantrique, druidism, druids, esoterisme, ethnology, hunters hunters and gatherers, illness -- religious aspects, immortality, magic, magie, maladies - aspect religieux, manuscripts, medecine et psychologie, medicine, meditation, monasteries, mudra, mysticism, mystique, orientale, parapsychologie, primitive religions, psychiatrie, refuges, religion, shamanism, tantra, witch doctors, witchcraft.

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ANU-SocSci-Netlore

Version 2.1 June 1993

Version 2.0 April 1993

Version 1.0 May 1992

A loose collection of documents, notes, hints, solutions, addresses and other net-lore dealing with the information resources, e-mail and networking procedures of significance to academic researchers in the fields of the Social Sciences, the Arts and the Humanities.

The dbase is sporadically updated with new materials being added at irregular intervals.

Dbase editor: Dr T. Matthew Ciolek tmciolek@coombs.anu.edu.au

KEYWORDS:

AARnet, Australia, BITNET, CIS, Coombspapers, EARN, Eastern Europe, Internet, Janet (Joint Academic Network), REACH (Research and Educational Applications of Computers in the Humanities), Western Europe, addresses, anonymous ftp facilities, archie, archive, archives, bulletin boards, campus wide information systems, connectivity, data banks, databases, dbases, e-journals, fonts, gopher servers, japanese script (kanji & kana), listservs, mailing lists, networking, networks, resources for the humanists, telnet, text archives.

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ANU-Taoism-Listserv

Version 1.0 August 1993

A collection of communications and exchanges submitted to the Taoism-L 'listserv' established on 30 Jul 1993 on the coombs.anu.edu.au machine.

Dbase editor: Dr T. Matthew Ciolek tmciolek@coombs.anu.edu.au

KEYWORDS:

Central Asia, Chine, China, Chinese philosophy, Dao, Lao Tse, Lao Tzu, Livres sacres, Mongolia, Tao, Tao Teh Ching, Taoisme, anthropology, daoism, dieux des montagnes, enlightenment, esoterisme, ethnology, immortality, magic, magie, manuscripts, medecine et psychologie, medicine, meditation, mudra, mysticism, mystique, orientale, parapsychology, religion, sacred texts, taoism, taoist yoga

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ANU-Thai-Yunnan

Version 1.0 May 1992

Annotated bibliography and the late dr Richard Davis' research notes collection of the Thai-Yunnan Project, Dept. of Anthropology, RSPacS Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200. Phone: +61 6 249 2162; fax: +61 6 257 1893; email: gew400@coombs.anu.edu.au

Dbase editors: Dr T. Matthew Ciolek & Sean S. Batt tmciolek@coombs.anu.edu.au

KEYWORDS:

Ethnic names: (Thailand, Thai, Tai, Dai, L, Lu, Lue, Dehong, Sipsongpanna, Xishuangbanna, Lanna, Lao, Shan, Zhuang, Dong, Nung), (China, Han, Haw, Hui, Panthay, Kokang, Yunnan), (Burma, Myanmar), (Cambodia, Khmer) Mon, Vietnam, (Hmong, Miao, Meo) (Lawa, Wa, Laveue, Lua) Jinuo, Naxi, Yi, (Karen, Karenni, Kayah, Pao, Pa-O) (Khamu, Khmu), (Yao, Mien), (Kachin, Jingpo), Lisu, Akha, Chin

Topics:

Buddhism, Christianity, Indochina, Islam, Muslim, South East Asia, agriculture, ancestor, anthropology, border, caravan, cash crop, commerce, conflict, court, courts, dialect, divorce, economy, ethnicity, frontier, geography, history, irrigation, kinship, language, linguistics, map, marriage, medicine, opium, prostitution, refugees, religion, sociology, spirit cult, trade, union, war

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ANU-Tibetan-ACIP-Catalog

Version 1.0 December 1993

TIBETAN ELECTRONIC TEXTS INPUT BY ASIAN CLASSICS INPUT PROJECT (ACIP)

The database provides a November 1993 list of titles of Tibetan classics already input by Asian Classics Input Project (ACIP) and available via anonymous FTP at CLR.NMSU.EDU: /pub/tibetan [the original archive] and at COOMBS.ANU.EDU.AU:

/coombspapers/otherarchives/asian-studies-archives/acip-tibet-e-texts- archive/ [a mirror archive].

The titles consist of religious works, catalogues, and dictionaries.

For specific questions about the Tibetan etexts archives at CLR.NMSU.EDU ftp site, contact:<lexical@crl.nmsu.edu>, Consortium for Lexical Research, New Mexico State University, USA.

These records are also available via the Coombsquest Gopher and/or anonymous ftp in a acip-tibet-classics-93list.txt file file from the Coombspapers Soc. Sci. Data Bank at coombs.anu.edu.au

Dbase editor: Dr T. Matthew Ciolek tmciolek@coombs.anu.edu.au

keywords:

Asian religions, Blue Annals, Buddha, Buddhism, Buddhist Studies, Coombspapers Social Sciences Research Data Bank, Kangyur, LC ( Library of Congress ) Tibetan Acquisitions, Listing of Tibetan Titles Available in India Nov 1989, Mahayana Buddhist Sutras, Sanskrit, Sera Mey Tibetan Monastic University in South India Computer Center, Tengyur, The Great Dictionary of the Tibetan Language, Tibet, Tibetan Buddhist Canon, Vimalakirti Sutra, White Lotus Sutra, anonymous ftp archives, e-texts, etexts, philosophical, logical and religious writings, primary and sacred texts.

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ANU-Tibetan-Electrn-Rsrces

Version 1.0 December 1993

TIBETAN ELECTRONIC RESOURCES GUIDE (T.E.R.G)

Compiled by: Dr T. Matthew Ciolek <tmciolek@coombs.anu.edu.au>, Coombs Computing Unit, RSSS/RSPacS, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200.

This is a world-wide directory of the computer network addresses of research facilities, archives, research centers, on-line databases and resources of interest to the serious scholars and students of Tibet, Tibetan culture and Tibetan affairs.

Readers are invited to email the compiler any additions or corrections to this dbase.

These records are also available via the Coombsquest Gopher and/or anonymous ftp in a "tibet-electr-rsrc-guide-terg.txt" file from the Coombspapers Soc. Sci. Data Bank at coombs.anu.edu.au

Dbase editor: Dr T. Matthew Ciolek tmciolek@coombs.anu.edu.au

KEYWORDS:

Asian affairs, Asian religions, BBS, Buddhist Studies Coombspapers Social Sciences Research Data Bank, Dalai Lama, Electronic Buddhist Archives, Facilities, Internet, Tibet, Tibetan Buddhism, Tibetan Government in Exile, Tibetan studies, WAIS databases, anonymous ftp archives, bitnet, bulletin boards, e-journals, e-texts, electronic journals, etexts, gophers, listserves, networked, networking, primary and sacred texts, resources, sutras

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ANU-ZenBuddhism-Calendar

Version 1.0 July 1993

This is a data base of dates, anniversaries and festivals of Zen Buddhism. It has been prepared on the basis of materials collected by Dr. T.M.Ciolek for his planned book on the history of the contemporary Zen Buddhism.

NOTE: Diacritic markings and macrons have been removed from this low ascii document. This data base is continuously expanded and improved on. Please e-mail any additions and/or corrections to this calendar to: tmciolek@coombs.anu.edu.au

Dbase editor: Dr T. Matthew Ciolek tmciolek@coombs.anu.edu.au

KEYWORDS:

Aitken, Asia, Asian, Australia, Bodhidharma, Buddha, Buddhist festivals, California, Ch'an, China, Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki, Dharma, Diamond Sangha, Dogen, Hakuin, Harada, Hawaii, Japan, Kapleau, Katagiri, Korea, Lin-chi, Maezumi, Obaku, Rinzai, San Francisco, Sanbo Kyodan, Senzaki, Shunryu Suzuki, Son, Soto, Sydney Zen Center, Tang Dynasty, Tarrant, USA, USA, Western Buddhism, Yamada, Yasutani, Zen Buddhism, Zen centers and centres, anthropology, calligraphy, contemplation, dojo, dokusan, enlightenment, ethnology, humanities, koan study koans, kyosaku, lineage, martial arts, meditation, mysticism, philosophy, religion, religious, ritual, roshi, satori, sensei, shikantaza, sociology, zazen.

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ANU-ZenBuddhism-Listserv

Version 1.0 August 1993

A collection of communications and exchanges submitted to the ZenBuddhism-L 'listserv' on the coombs.anu.edu.au machine.

ZenBuddhism-L is a world-wide forum for exchange of scholarly and factual information dealing with the Zen Buddhism, its history, lore, scholarship, writings, forms of meditation practice as well as its organisational forms, concerns, involvements and activities. While the forum addresses itself to all periods of the 2500 years old Zen tradition in India, China, Korea, Vietnam, Japan, Nth America and other countries, it is hoped that it will establish a strong focus is on the modern developments (that is, events and transformations prompted by the times and lives of Shaku Soen Roshi, Senzaki Nyogen Sensei, Sawaki Kodo Roshi, Harada Daiun Sogaku Roshi, Hyobong Sunim, Dr D. T. Suzuki and other esteemed teachers, gentlemen and scholars). It has been established on the 20 August 1993 on the initiative of Dr T. Matthew Ciolek <tmciolek@coombs.anu.edu.au>, an administrator of the COOMBSQUEST gopher and the Coombspapers Social Sciences Research Data Bank anon.ftp archives at the ANU.

Dbase editor: Dr T. Matthew Ciolek tmciolek@coombs.anu.edu.au

KEYWORDS:

Asia, Bodhidharma, Buddhism, California Diamond Sangha, Ch'an, China, Chinul, Dogen, Hakuin, Mahakashyapa, Mahayana, Obaku, Patriarch, Rinzai, Sanbo Kyodan, Shakyamuni Buddha, Son, Soto, Western Buddhism, Yasutani Hakuun Roshi, Zen, bodhisattva, caligraphy, dojo, enlightenment, history of ideas, history of religion, ink-paintings, kinhin, koan, kyosaku, lay practice, makyo, martial-arts, meditation, monasteries, monks, nuns, samadhi, satori, shikentaza, sutras, zazen.

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{14) SANGHA: Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana

Tradition

====================================================

The Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) is an international network of individuals dedicated to the transmission of Mahayana Buddhism as a practised and living tradition. The FPMT was founded in 1975 by Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche.

International & Regional Offices

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FPMT CENTRAL OFFICE, PO Box 1778, Soquel CA 95073. Tel: (408) 476- 8435. Fax: (408) 476-4823.

FPMT AUST/NZ REGIONAL OFFICE, PO Box 1326, Chatswood, Sydney, NSW 2067, AUSTRALIA. Tel: (61) 02-451-9812. Fax: same.

FPMT EUROPEAN REGIONAL OFFICE, 7 Rue Labat, 75018 Paris, FRANCE. Tel: (33) 1-4255 0328. Fax: (33) 1-4252 5063.

FPMT NORTH AMERICAN REGIONAL OFFICE, 12110 Diagonal Road, Lagrange OH 44050. Tel: (216) 458-4289. Fax: same.

FPMT SOUTH ASIA REGIONAL OFFICE, GPO Box 817, Kathmandu NEPAL. Tel: (977) 1-413094. Fax: (977) 1-410992.

Australia

~~~~~~~~~

ATISHA CENTRE, RMB 1530, Eaglehawk, Bendigo VIC 3556. Tel: 054-42 2866. Fax: 054-42 5301.

BUDDHA HOUSE, PO Box 93, Eastwood, Adelaide SA 5063. Tel: 08-79 9153. Fax: 08-373 1051.

LANGRI TANGPA CENTRE, 51 Ennoggera Road, Newmarket, Brisbane QLD 4051. Tel: 07-356 9523.

CHENREZIG INSTITUTE, PO Box 41, Eudlo QLD 4554. Tel: 074-45 0077. Fax: 074-45 0088.

HAYAGRIVA BUDDHIST CENTRE, PO Box 302, Como, Perth WA 6152. Tel: 09- 367 1641. Fax: 09-450 4960.

HOSPICE OF MOTHER TARA, 13 Picton Crescent, Bunbury WA 6230. Tel: 097- 219 497.

KARUNA HOSPICE SERVICE, 67 O'Connell Tce, Bowen Hills, Brisbane QLD 4006. Tel: 07-852 2733. Fax: 07-852 2012.

THE MAITREYA PROJECT, 1 Grove Lane, Lilyfield NSW 2040. Tel: 02-818 4754. Fax: same.

SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA HOSPICE, PO Box A453, Sydney NSW 2000. Tel: 02-967 2020. Fax: 02-904 1247.

TARA INSTITUTE, 3 Mavis Ave, Brighton East, Melbourne VIC 3187. Tel: 03-596 8900. Fax: 03-596-4856.

VAJRASATTVA MOUNTAIN CENTRE, 26 Hathill Road, Blackheath NSW 2785. Tel: 047-823 884.

VAJRAYANA INSTITUTE, PO Box 597, Neutral Bay, Sydney NSW 2089. Tel: 02-909 1330. Fax: 02-904 1247.

WISDOM PUBLICATIONS AUSTRALIA, PO Box 1326, Chatswood, Sydney NSW 2067. Tel: 02-417 1897. Fax: 02-417 1857.

England

~~~~~~~

JAMYANG MEDITATION CENTRE, 10 Finsbury Park Road, London N4 2JZ. Tel: 071-3591394. Fax: 071-2729473.

SHEN PHEN THUBTEN CHOELING, The Nurse's Cottage, Long Lane, Peterchurch, Herford HR2 OTE. Tel: 0981 550 246. Fax: 0981 550 030.

France

~~~~~~

INSTITUT VAJRA YOGINI, Chateau d'en Clausade, Marzens 81500 Lavaur. Tel: 063-581722. Fax: 063-580348.

KALACHAKRA CENTER, 20 Rue Murillo, 75008 Paris. Tel: 01-4255 0328. Fax: 01-42525063.

NALANDA MONASTERY, Rouzegas, Labastide Saint-Georges, 81500 Lavaur. Tel: 063-580225. Fax: 063-581987.

Germany

~~~~~~~

ARYATATA CITY CENTRE, Lucille-Grahnstrasse 47, D-8000 Munchen 80. Tel: 089-471 415.

ARYATARA INSTITUT, Holzhamerstr 5, D-8382 Arnstorf. Tel: 08723-2396. Fax: 08723-3768.

Greece

~~~~~~

DO-NGAG ZUNG-JUG LING, PO Box 16, Paros 84400. Tel: 0284-91343.

Honk Kong

~~~~~~~~~

CHAM-TSE-LING, 546 Nathan Road, 14th Floor, Flat A, Kowloon. Tel: 770 7239.

Holland

~~~~~~~

MAJIG LABDRON, c/o Slipjachtpad 23, 5042 WD Tilburg. Tel: 013-681326.

MAITREYA INSTITUUT, Heemhoeveweg 2, 8166 HA Emst. Tel: 05787-1450. Fax: 05787-1851.

India

~~~~~

MAITRI LEPROSY CENTRE, PO Bodhgaya (Gaya Dist), Bihar 824231. Tel: 631-20704.

ROOT INSTITUTE, Bodhgaya (Gaya Dist), Bihar 824231. Tel: 631-81714.

DESTITUTE HOME AND CLINIC UNDER THE CARE OF SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA, Bodhgaya (Gaya Dist), Bihar 824231. Tel: 631-81714.

TUSHITA RETREAT CENTRE, McLeod Ganj Dharamsala, Distt. Kangra, HP 176219. Tel: 1892-4366.

Italy

~~~~~

CENTRO STUDI CENRESIG, Via F Acri 2/A, 40126 Bologna. Tel: 051-226953.

CENTRO LAMA TZONG KHAPA, Piazza V Emanuele 18, 31050 Villorba (Treviso). Tel: 0422-928079.

CHIARA LUCE EDIZIONI, Via Poggiberna 9, 56040 Pomaia (Pisa). Tel: 050- 685690. Fax: 02-29402152.

INSTITUTO LAMA TZONG KHAPA, Via Poggiberna 9, 56040 Pomaia (Pisa). Tel: 050-685654. Fax: 050-685768.

MUNI GHIANA CENTRE, Piazzetta Delle Vergini 10, 90133 Palermo. Tel: 091-334429. Fax: same.

SHINE, Via Poggiberna 9, 56040 Pomaia (Pisa). Tel: 050-685774. Fax: 050-685768.

TAKDEN SHEDRUP TARGYE LING, Via Poggiberna 9, 56040 Pomaia (Pisa). Tel: 050-685976. Fax: 050-685654.

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION - ITALY, Via San Bernardino 16, 38100 Trento. Tel: 0461-233080.

Japan

~~~~~

DO NGAK SUNG JUK CENTER, Haitsu Miyazono 307, 2-2-1 Nakano, Nakano-Ku, Tokyo T164. Tel: 33 375-6887. Fax: same.

Nepal

~~~~~

HIMALAYAN YOGIC INSTITUTE, GPO Box 817, Kathmandu. Tel: 1-413094. Fax: 1-410992.

KHACHOE GHAKYIL NUNNERY, GPO Box 817, Kathmandu. Tel: 1-226717.

KOPAN GOMPA, GPO Box 817, Kathmandu. Tel: 1-226717.

LAWUDO RETREAT CENTRE, PO Box 817, Kathmandu. Tel: 1-413094.

New Zealand

~~~~~~~~~~~

DORJE CHANG INSTITUTE, PO Box 2814, Auckland 1. Tel: 09-376-6509. Fax: 09-634-1287.

MAHAMUDRA CENTRE, Colville R.D. 4, Coromandel. Tel: 07-866-6851. Fax: same.

Singapore

~~~~~~~~~

AMITABHA BUDDHIST CENTRE, 494-D Geylang, S-1438. Tel: 745 8547. Fax: 741 0438.

Spain

~~~~~

EDICIONES DHARMA, Apartado 218, 03660 Novelda (Alicante). Tel: 96-560- 3200. Fax: 96-560-4796.

NAGARJUNA C.E.T. BARCELONA, Rosselon 298 Pral 2a, 08037 Barcelona. Tel: 93-257-0788.

NAGARJUNA C.E.T. MADRID, Duque de Osuna, 8-2-0 Izq, 28015 Madrid. Tel: 91-429-6708. Fax: same.

NAGARJUNA C.E.T. VALENCIA, Costa 10, Pta 9, 46005 Valencia. Tel: 96- 395-1008. Fax: 96-395-3560.

O.SEL.LING CENTRO DE RETIROS, Apartado 99, 18400 Orgiva (Granada). Tel: 958-763-088.

THUBTEN LING, Aptdo 162, 03400 Villena (Alicante). Tel: 96-5808962.

Tahiti

~~~~~~

NAROPA MEDITATION CENTER, BP 20610, Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia. Tel: 574-932. Fax: same.

Taiwan

~~~~~~

JINGXU FOFA ZHONGXIN, PO Box 13-99, Taipei. Tel: 02-932-3453. Fax: 02- 933-3597.

United States of America

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

JALANDHARA, INC., 627 S. Governor St., Iowa City IA 52240. Tel: 319- 338-8755.

KADAMPA CENTER, 317 Wax Myrtle Ct, Cary NC 27513. Tel: 919-859-3433. Fax: 919-460-1769.

KURUKULLA CENTER, PO Box 67262, Chestnut Hill MA 02167. Tel: 617-421- 9668. Fax: 617-536-1897.

LAMA'S VISION FOR KIDS (TARA DAY CARE), 5200 Glen Haven Road, Soquel CA 95073. Tel: 408-462-0311.

LAND OF MEDICINE BUDDHA, 5800 Prescott Road, Soquel CA 95073. Tel: 408-462-8383. Fax: 408-462-8380.

MILAREPA CENTER, Barnet Mountain, Barnet VT 05821. Tel: 802-633-4136.

OSEL SHEN PHEN LING, 338 West Alder St., Missoula MT 59802. Tel: 406- 721-3155.

SHANTIDEVA CENTER, HCR 4660, Keaau HI 96749. Tel: 808-966-6877. Fax: 808-966-4076.

TSECHEN LING, 4469 23rd St, San Francisco CA 94114. Tel: 415-641-0671. Fax: 415-641-4145.

VAJRAPANI INSTITUTE, PO Box I, Boulder Creek CA 95006. Tel: 408-338- 6654. Fax: 408-338-3666.

WISDOM ENERGY CENTER, 4515 N. Hamilton #2W, Chicago IL 60625. Tel: 312-275-9226.

WISDOM PUBLICATIONS, INC., 361 Newbury Street, Boston MA 02115. Tel: 617-536-3358. Fax: 617-536-1897.

[from Mandala, October 1993.]

{15) ANNOUNCEMENTS:

LISTENING PROJECTS is a conflict resolution tool that has been used to help communities throughout the world deal with vital community concerns and conflicts. Rural Southern Voice for Peace, a southeast regional training and resource organization, will offer a Listening Project Training in Asheville, North Carolina on March 10-13. For information, contact: RSVP, 1898 Hannah Branch Road, Burnsville, NC 28714. (704) 675-5933.

PEACEMAKERS is a nonprofit organization that works with other groups to form international nonviolent peacemaking teams. These teams are prepared to go into conflict areas in various parts of the world to provide an international nonviolent presence and work with local groups on all sides of conflicts. For information about upcoming trainings, contact: Peaceworkers, 721 Shrader Street, San Francisco, CA 94117. Tel: (415) 751-0302.

BUDDHIST PEACE FELLOWSHIP is looking for a volunteer or group in the U.S. to coordinate support for young girls rescued from prostitution in northern Thailand, on the Burmese boader. We are also looking for a young person fluent in Thai and English who might like to work on related issues in Thailand. Contact Alan Senauke at the BPF office for further information: (510) 525-8596.

VOLUNTEER NEEDED to work with INEB-Nepal coordinator Stella Tamang in Katmandu. Assist with correspondence and school program in exchange for room and board. Contact Alan Senauke at the BPF office for further information: (510) 525-8596.

DHAMMATIETRA III, a walk for peace in Cambodia this May, will again be led by Ven. Samdech Preah Maha Gosananda. This walk from Phom Penh to the Khmer Rouge headquarters at Pailin will continue the effort to bring reconciliation among all the people of Cambodia. International support is most welcome. For more information, contact Liz Bernsteing at Coalition for Peace & Reconciliation, P.O. Box 144, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Fax: 855-232-6400.

PHRA PRACHAK KUTTAJITTO, environmentalist forest monk from Northeast Thailand, will be visiting the United States offering dharma talks, discussion, and several weekend forest walks this coming June. For several years Phra Prachak has been protecting the Dong Yai forest preserve from cutting and commercial exploitation, often at risk to his own safety and freedom. We are proud to host him in the U.S., along with Phra Paisan Vimalo, a leading Thai social activist monk. While the precise dates are still tentative, plans include time in the San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle areas. For more information call BPF at (510) 525-8596.

WANTED: Insight Meditation Society, a vipassana retreat center in Barre, MA, has an immediate opening for a COMPUTER COORDINATOR to join our volunteer staff.

Qualifications: Programming experience, knowledge of PC hardware, database management, basic trouble shooting ability. PC networking (NetWare) and r-base experience helpful. As well, we ask for commitment to practice and to the five precepts, ability to live and work harmoniously with others, and a one-year commitment.

We offer ample time and support for sitting, guidance from Dhamma teachers, a six-hour work day, room, board, a $125 stipend per month, health insurance, and the opportunity to work and live with others in an environment that fosters mindfulness and metta.

If you are interested in this rich opportunity for growth and service, please contact Julie (Personnel Coordinator) at: Insight Meditation Society, Pleasant Street, Barre MA 01005. Tel: (508) 355- 4378; Fax: (508) 355-6398. e-mail: office@metta.ci.net

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED: If you would like to help with various aspects of producing The Mindfulness Bell — editing, typing, gathering sangha news, design, or soliciting articles — or helping in the offices of Community for Mindful Living and Parallax Press, we need your input! Call (510) 527-3751.

WESTERN MONASTIC SANGHA: Venerable Jigme Palmo (Elly van der Pas) is organizing a conference to be held near Santa Cruz, California, in June, for monastic sangha (monks and nuns) of any Buddhist tradition. This is for Westerners who are trying to support some kind of monastic lifestyle outside of the traditional support systems, for networking and creating support structures. E-mail to: elly@well.sf.ca.us or write to: Ven. Jigme Palmo, Editor, Mandala, PO Box 1778, Soquel CA 95073.

JUNE 1995 RETREAT ON NUN'S PRACTICE. The Sangha of nuns at Plum Village is organizing a seminar on "The Shaping of Communities of Nuns in the West," from June 17-22, 1995, to look deeply into the establishment of communities of western nuns from various traditions. Anyone interested — monks, nuns, laypeople, Buddhists, non-Buddhists — is invited to attend. The dates are subject to change depending on the response.

You are warmly invited to contribute articles on the following topics: 1. Eastern practices of community living that may be useful in a Western community of nuns. 2. Western practices within non-Buddhist communities of nuns, that may be useful to Buddhist nuns. 3. What we can do to assist in the revival of the Bhikkhuni order within the Theravada tradition. Any other suggestions on topics to cover as well as activities that may be useful to include in this seminar would be welcome. Please address inquiries to: Sister Eleni, Plum Village, Meyrac, 47120 Loubes-Bernac, France. FAX: (33) 53-94.75.90.

BUDDHIST BOOKS NEEDED in prison. Please consider sending your old dharma books to: Prison Dharma Network, P.O. Box 912, Astor Station, Boston MA 02123-0912.

BUDDHIST STUDIES REVIEW, published in London under the able editorship of Russell Webb, is currently celebrating its tenth anniversary. Buddhist Studies Review is the bi-annual journal of the Institut de recherche bouddhique Linh-So'n and the Pali Buddhist Union. Widely known in Europe, it has published articles by Heinz Bechert, Hubert Durt, Paul Harrison, Peter Harvey, Ria Kloppenborg, Etienne Lamotte, Joy Manne, K.R. Norman, Charles Prebish, Russell Webb, Karel Werner, and others.

Despite the high quality and broad scope of its articles, translations, and reviews, it has not been extensively available in the United States.

During the last year, as the result of a shared interest in the academic study of Buddhism, Russell Webb and I had several discussions about how to make this journal more available to scholars in North America. Our conclusion was to establish an editorial office in the United States. In that regard, I have been appointed as North American Treasurer and Assistant Editor. Anyone wishing to subscribe to this important journal can contact me, at my Penn State address, for an application. The cost for an annual subscription will be $11 for individuals and $19 for institutions. Additionally, Buddhist Studies Review would like to encourage North American scholars to offer manuscripts for possible publication in the journal. Manuscripts may also be sent to me at my Penn State address. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or inquiries.

Professor Charles S. Prebish

The Pennsylvania State University	Voice Mail: 814/865-1121

Religious Studies Program	E-Mail: csp1@psuvm.psu.edu

216 Weaver Building	Fax: 814/863-7840

University Park, Pennsylvania 16802

{16} PARTING THOUGHT

Qualities like love and compassion are not just abstract virtues that are the properties of saints and adepts. There are concrete ways by which anyone can experience these qualities in themselves.

-- Joanna Macy, "For the Awakening of All"

{17} ABOUT Gasshō

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Upcoming Issues in 1994

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May/June	Evolving Models of Sangha	April 15

July/August	Women in Buddhism	June 17

September/October	Health & Healing	August 18

November/December	Human Rights, Buddhist Values	October 18

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